Chloe & The Brothers 9: The Enemy of My Enemy
by shadowglove
Summary: Sequel to: Tinseltown Rumor Mill. The world now knows about vampires, and most of it has been compelled by Klaus, via the "coming out" broadcast. With the Salvatores and the Winchesters unable to see eye to eye on anything, Lois learning to become a vampire hunter, and someone from the past returning to 'help', things are crazy. And, of course, E!News is happily covering it all.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Don't own Smallville/Supernatural/Vampire Diaries**

Sequel to: Chloe & The Brothers 8 - Tinseltown Rumor Mill

**WARNING - THIS ENTIRE SERIES DEALS WITH CHLOExMULTIPLE, IF YOU DON'T LIKE THIS, THEN THIS ISN'T THE SERIES FOR YOU.**

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"You know, I was hoping I'd go unnoticed a little longer." Chloe chewed on a cookie and lay on the ground, propped up by a pillow as they watched E!News later that night. Lois had tipped them off that news of the blonde's return was all over Tinseltown-and it was. There were even pictures of Chloe and Lois' reunion, the two girls hugging tightly with Sam and Dean (still very recognizable despite the hoodies) smiling in the background. A report of Chloe and Lois spending the night at the apartment the brothers' shared was buzzing, the people who worked on E! sharing theories on what exactly was going on and what this meant. They also kept talking about Supernatural Diaries, Paranormal, and the new outing of vampires, speculating that this was the reason for Chloe's reappearance on Tinseltown.

Couldn't have been farther from the truth. Had Chloe known about the Originals outing the vampire race she probably would have arranged for a meeting far away from the limelight. It didn't matter that the world now knew about vampires, she still didn't want anyone to know about _her_ vampirism, and the thought of it being discovered made her nauseas.

"I doubt you would have been able to keep yourself hidden for much longer anyone, you have no idea how much you were loved or how much interest your disappearance has garnered-especially after the bear massacre." Sam somehow made himself heard over Lois' loud snores as he sat on the sofa. "The fact that Lo joined our cast also was a big thing because many of the fans of Chloe & The Dead People believed it proved that you weren't coming back, which was why she was going ahead with her career."

"She got a lot of flak for that, lots of people said she'd sold out 'the real deal' to 'play' on television," Dean mumbled from his seat on the other side of the sofa. "And then there's the fact that she and dad can't decide whether they love or hate each other. This whole year hasn't been easy for her."

Chloe's gaze went to where her cousin was in an awkward position on the love seat, head tilted back, neck arched, and mouth wide open as she snored unabashedly.

"You guys have a _lot_ of girl talk to get up to date with." Sam leaned back harder on the seat. "I tried to be there for her, to listen and support her despite the fact that she was complaining about my father, but I know that I was a poor substitute for you."

"We even tried to do that cook-to-heal shit on her insistence but considering the three of us can't cook… Well… It didn't work out." Dean snorted.

Chloe turned at that, glancing at the two men who'd not only kept her secret when she'd needed them, but had looked after the person she loved the most in the world when she couldn't. They hadn't needed to do that. They didn't have any reason to look for Chloe when she'd gone missing, to keep her secret when they'd found her, or to keep in contact to make sure she was fine. The Winchesters hadn't had to do half of the things they had for her, and yet they had. They'd put up with Damon's attitude and Lois' atrocious cooking, and so much more. For her.

Her heart clenched, and she couldn't help but smile tenderly at them as she acted on instinct, raising to her feet.

The movement seemed to surprise them as they straightened on the sofa, eyes on her, curious.

Walking towards the sofa, the blonde knelt on it between them and reached out with her arms, curling them around their necks as she brought the boys softly to her in a hug. "Thank you, for everything."

They were shocked for a moment before Sam slipped an arm around her waist and Dean rubbed her thigh.

Their heartbeats had grown faster, yet not in fear.

Breathing in their scent, Chloe pressed a kiss to Dean's cheek, and then to Sam's, before slipping away and going back to her previous position on the floor, curling around the pillow as her gaze returned to the television.

She could feel their gazes on her, but they didn't move, didn't do anything but watch her.

…

The blonde didn't realize she was sleepy until she woke up later on the sofa with the pillow under her head and a quilt over her, Lois having had one placed over her as well. Chloe smirked at her still snoring cousin as she stretched, sitting up and yawning, stomach growling in hunger. The clock read 2 in the morning, and in a couple of hours Sam and Dean would be getting up to start their daily exercising in their private gym.

Last night Perry and Martha, as well as Clark and Lana, had called Lois once they'd heard of Chloe's return via E!News, and Chloe had spoken to them on the phone. She's also had to make plans to meet up with them and talk. She knew that she had much to explain, and she wondered exactly just how much she should tell. With his abilities Clark would know something was different with her, but should she tell him everything?

Turning towards Lois, giving the sleeping brunette a look, Chloe headed towards the door, grabbing her shoes and putting them on as she went. Her hand hesitated over the handle, wondering if she should leave Sam, Dean and Lois a note to let them know that she was only going out to get something to eat. But considering that she'd probably be back before they woke up, a note didn't really make any sense and would only be a waste of time. Her fingers clasped around the doorknob.

"Leaving already?"

Gasping, Chloe turned, shocked to find that Dean had somehow snuck up behind her during her moment of thought. "What are you doing still awake?"

"Figured you might wait till we were sleeping to leave," he replied pointblank.

Chloe sighed, eyeing him, realizing he had yet to forgive her for leaving town. "I'm hungry."

"You had blood before we came here." He frowned, folding his arms over his chest as he came closer. "Try again."

"I'm not, because I was telling you the truth the _first_ time." Chloe narrowed her eyes as she took a step towards him. "I won't leave without saying goodbye next time. I promise."

"So you're planning on leaving again." He shook his head, expression dark.

"What do you want me to say, Dean?" Chloe hissed, not wanting to disturb Lois' sleep. "Because it seems that nothing I can say is the right answer for you!"

"It's hard to trust you when you haven't ever given us reason to," Dean hissed right back at her. "You run at the first sign of trouble, you ditch all those around you. And it's not the first time either. The only reason we met you is because you'd already ditched some colleagues you were working with whom you were having lovers' spats with and couldn't handle it so you booked it out of dodge!Yeah-Lois told us about that when she was really drunk and crying her eyes out on our sofa."

Chloe flinched, feeling as if she'd been slapped.

"And then you not only run out on me and Sam, but you ditch _Lois_ as well!" Dean's fury was only now truly revealing itself as he closed the gap between them, glaring viciously at her. "And now that there was trouble in paradise you skipped out on Stefan and Damon as well!"

She took a step back, continuing to feel as if she was being punched over and over again.

"You're _unreliable_ Chloe. You don't stick around when people need you the most. You run and make a new life for yourself and forget about your old one and the people in it who still love you." Dean bridged the gap once more, his orbs hazel fire. "_That_ is why I'm still awake."

"Dean…" Chloe's gaze went to Lois. "Can we have this conversation somewhere else?"

"_Fine_." Grabbing her arm Dean yanked her behind him in the opposite direction of the door, taking her out through the winding corridor towards their personal gym. It was a good distance away from the rest of the apartment and sound proof so that should one of the brothers be unable to sleep, he could come here and work off his frustration, blasting his music, and not bother anyone else who might be around.

Allowing herself to be flung inside, Chloe turned towards Dean as he closed the door behind him. "Everything you've said is true."

"Damn straight it is," Dean snapped, leaning against the door, obviously giving her an obstacle should she try to escape again. "Do you even care at all?"

"Of course I do!" Now that she didn't have to worry about bothering Lois and Sam, Chloe snapped, throwing her hands in the air. "I know I was a bitch to _everyone_ and that I'm weak and a coward and that I run! I know that! And unfortunately being a vampire enhances every single fault I have so I'm worse than I was before! I _know_ it, Dean! And I'm sorry!" She deflated, reminding herself that she wasn't the victim here. "I'm _so sorry_. I should never have done what I did, to anyone! Not to Bruce and Ollie and the guys… nor to you and Sam and Lois… nor even to Stefan and Damon. I'm _sorry_! It's just a part of my nature! I'm like a terrified bird-at the first sign of danger I fly away! And it's wrong! And cowardly! And I _never_ fight for what I want because… I don't know…" She turned and growled, hands to her face. "Maybe it's a part of my genes? My mother left us when the going got tough, so maybe I'm just like her."

"Do _not_ use that excuse," Dean snapped at her. "You are _not_ your mother."

She turned to him at that, pulling her hands from her face. "Maybe I am."

"No, that's you using her as an excuse for your _own_ choices," Dean replied, pushing away from the door and storming towards her, his face red with anger. "You need to stop running, to stop making excuses, and realize that you're not only hurting yourself but those around you!"

"I'm sorry."

"Stop saying that!" He snapped, grabbing her arm and yanking her to him. "Stop saying it only because you feel guilty and think it'll help somehow!"

"I don't know what else to say!" She snarled, impotence, frustration, guilt, hurt, shame… All those emotions churned within her and were a deadly combination in a vampire, still she fought the urge to let her fangs appear. "All I can say is I fucked up and I'm sorry!"

"And yet you're still planning on leaving!" He was not backing down. "You're still planning on running away!"

"What do you want me to do? Stay here?" Chloe gave him a shove, hard enough for him to feel it yet not enough to push him across the room. "I'm a _vampire,_ Dean! And I'm a new one at that! I'm dangerous! I shouldn't even be here now!"

"There you start-."

"No! Dean! I'm _hungry!" _And it wasn't a lie, her hunger and emotions were wrecking havoc with her control. "I shouldn't be fighting like this with you on an empty stomach because it makes me want to _bite you_! Don't you get it? I'm not exaggerating when I tell you guys that I'm unstable!"

He thought for a moment, eyeing her with narrowed gaze, before deciding. "I'm not letting you out of this apartment until I'm certain you're not going to run."

"You couldn't stop me if I really wanted to go," she hissed, feeling her eyes bleeding black, the veins going dark around her eyes as her fangs elongated enough to peek out from her lips.

Dean's eyes widened, never having seen her vampiric face before.

Hissing, Chloe turned her back on him, taking in a deep breath. She closed her eyes and breathed in and out, in and out, trying to calm herself, telling her fangs to recede. Nothing was listening to her, and with a whimper she lowered to her knees, crouching down as she grabbed fistfuls of her hair, trying to use the stinging pain to distract herself from the urge to bury her fangs into Dean and drink. Her body found the idea of draining him dry the best way to both quench her hunger and shut him up.

"Chloe?"

She ignored his voice, his faster heart rate and pulse, and instead she concentrated on her own breaths as she breathed in and out.

"Are you okay?"

In and out.

In and out.

Dean sighed. "This wouldn't have happened to you if you'd stayed with us."

There wasn't any anger or accusation in his voice anymore, only sadness.

She whimpered once more, closing her eyes tighter.

In.

Out.

In.

Out.

Suddenly he was behind her, a curse leaving his lips before he was kneeling behind her, drawing her into his arms.

She reluctantly went into his heat, scared she'd snap due to being so close to temptation, the vampire keeping herself tense in his arms.

Dean maneuvered them so that he was seated with his back against the wall, and she sat curled between his legs and leaned against his chest. "If you tell Sammy I did this I'll deny it. He'll never let me live down being a part of a chick-flick moment," he sighed. "There's a reason why I refuse all the romantic scripts I get constantly coming my way, you know. I never feel comfortable pretending to be in love with someone. It just-it doesn't feel right."

Chloe concentrated on his voice, on his words, slowly feeling herself regaining control once more.

"It's why I love my character on Paranormal. He's not the type to have a romantic relationship, so I don't have to worry about having to work with a woman in a romantic way and having to fake feelings for her." His hand rose to caress her hair in a soothing way. "I never want to learn how to _fake_ being in love."

Her fangs began to recede.

"They were thinking about giving me a girlfriend and a pseudo son next season, since this season finale it seems Sam's character is going to do something stupid and heroic." Dean continued to talk her through her episode. "I fought it. Vehemently. They had no choice but to trash the idea and now the writers hate me _almost_ as much as they hate you."

She couldn't help but chuckle at that, veins still prominent and eyes still black, yet fangs now completely gone.

His hand slipped to her jaw and raised her gaze up to his hazels, which observed her face. "I hated you for so long."

She gulped, unable to look away from him.

"I've been with _many_ women since you left." He tightened his grip on her jaw. "I wanted to forget all about you, to wanted to erase any memory of you. It didn't make sense-it wasn't as if we'd been in an actual relationship… And yet…" His gaze lowered her to lips. "No matter how many times I slept around, no matter how many woman's beds I visited, whenever I closed my eyes it was _you_."

"_Dean_…" Chloe whispered.

"I thought I'd gotten over you, and then there was that supposed bear attack and there you were on the news and I realized I'd fooled myself." Dean smiled an ugly, self-hating smile as he leaned hard against the wall. "And then we find you and you're living the life with two guys who I _hate_ because somehow they can get you to be with them when we were never able to. I hated them because they made me feel like I wasn't enough… That they had something we didn't."

"No, Dean." Chloe pushed away enough to sit up on her knees, turning towards him, laying her hand over his heart as her veins slowly faded. "You and Sam are in no way _less_ than Stefan and Damon, if anything, you guys are eerily similar." She tightened her grip on his shirt, gazing into his eyes. "If I hadn't turned into a vampire I _never_ would have been with them either. I would still be too scared and worried about morals and-." She shrugged with a sigh. "Once you die and become a vampire that changes. Your deepest desires as a human, the you that you try to ignore and pretend doesn't exist-you _become_ that person."

"So if I ever became a vampire I'd become a murderer then," Dean announced, monotone, "because all I want to do is tear the Salvatores apart."

"_Dean_…" Chloe wished she knew what to say, what to do, to make right everything she'd done wrong.

"You love them."

She couldn't deny that, and he knew it.

It was obvious on his face. "Did you ever love us?"

"Oh god, Dean, of course! It's why I was so terrified!" Chloe surged forwards and hugged him tightly, feeling his arms wrap around her and hold her just as tightly. "You and Sam are always going to be important to me, and I'll always be half in love with you two." She hid her face in his neck, hating the way he tensed at the action, and yet not blaming him considering she was a vampire. "You guys are always going to have a part of my heart Stefan and Damon never will, and I think it drives them crazy sometimes because they know it."

"Chloe…" Dean's hands went to her shoulders and he slowly pushed her away enough so his narrowed gaze could stare deep inside of her eyes.

Chloe looked back, not sure what was happening but knowing it was important.

"I need you to answer something truthfully," he whispered.

She nodded, sensing the importance in his body language, and in his eyes.

"Do we still have a chance?"

Chloe's eyes widened.

He tightened his hold on her. "Do you still have romantic feelings for us?"

She wanted to look away, wanted to pull away, but Dean was right when he said that she was being a coward.

Gulping, Chloe stared deep in Dean's eyes as she answered. "Many things have changed in my life, Dean." She took in a deep breath. "But my feelings for you and Sam aren't one of those things." She took in another deep breath as she lowered her gaze. "That doesn't change how things are in our lives right now though. I know very well that even letting myself entertain the idea of being in a relationship with the two of you would be a monumentally horrible idea. Not only am I still clinging hard to my control over my bloodlust and could snap at any given moment and _kill_ either-or both!-of you, but I'm somewhat controlling and I have to fight the urge to Compel and-."

His eyes widened slightly as his lips started to tilt in pleasure. "So if I kissed you right now…?"

"_You really shouldn't,_" she whispered as her gaze jerked back to his face, green eyes wide in a near panic, her voice breathy. "Didn't you just hear the part about my pathetically fragile grasp on self-control? I'm also in a _very_ complicated 'kinda' relationship with two other vampires, not that it's ever been exclusive or anything, but I'm-."

Dean kissed her.

Chloe whimpered, eyes closing as her grip on his shirt tightened as he silenced her nervous ramblings with his mouth. Lips moving against his hungrily, Chloe arched into Dean's tight embrace as he drew her closer. She gasped as he opened his mouth to the kiss, Dean's tongue invading her mouth as his fingers dug into her skin. Chloe's body trembled and a whimper escaped her lips as her fingers released their hold on his shirt so that her hands could trail up his chest to lock behind his neck.

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"I can't believe I left her alone and went with _you_," Damon snarled as he drove recklessly, pedal pressed all the way to the floor. "I should have _known_ they'd somehow convince her to come and visit them. Those damn Winchesters!"

"We don't know that they were involved in her decision to go back to Hollywood." And to be honest, the thought of her going on her own was what bothered Stefan the most as he glared out at the darkness of the night.

"I mean, what do they have to offer her, really?" Damon was mostly talking to himself now as he tapped his fingers furiously against the steering wheel. "They're _actors_. Mere _imitators_ of life. Chloe's bigger than that."

"She loves them," Stefan reminded.

"Yeah, well, she loves us too," Damon snapped back.

That was the first time either of them had ever said it out loud.

"And we're better for her." Damon looked away, obviously uneasy. "And I don't share well. I can barely tolerate _your_ position in her life and I really only do because you're her sire."

Stefan could echo the sentiments, not sure why exactly he tolerated Damon's presence in his relationship with Chloe.

He hadn't been able to handle it with Katherine… or Elena.

So why was it different with Chloe?

"I'm not letting the Wonder Twins take her back. I'll rip out their spines before I let that happen," Damon promised darkly, tightening his grip on the steering wheel so much Stefan worried he'd break it. "She'll get over it in a couple hundred years."

"You're not going to hurt the Winchesters." Stefan frowned, turning his glare on his brother. "And you're delusional if you think a couple hundred years would be enough for her to forgive you for hurting them. She never would, and you know that."

"Why are they so goddamn special?" The animalistic fury in Damon's voice was enough to prove that he knew very well that Stefan was right, and he hated it. "We're her family. _Us_. She doesn't need anyone else."

"She never made it a secret that she wanted to return to her family once she was in control of herself," Stefan reminded as patiently as he could given the fact that he wasn't in the best of the moods himself. "And if we want to have any sort of place in her life we're going to have to accept everything that comes with her old world."

Damon sneered at that, obviously disagreeing, yet didn't have a moment to speak due to his phone ringing. "Great." Searching in his jacket, Damon pulled out his phone and brought it to his ear. "Who is this and what do you want?" He blinked, frowning. "Ric?" He turned to Stefan curiously before returning his gaze to the road. "Yeah, I know I've been a shitty best friend… Why are you surprised about that?" He smirked. "So, what's new?"

Stefan shook his head, amused at the odd relationship between Alaric and his brother.

"No, I'm heading towards Hollywood… My girl's getting too comfy with two vultures after her, that's why." Damon was apparently eager to vent to _anyone_ about the situation. "What do you mean you watch Paranormal? You obviously have no taste."

Stefan returned his gaze out of the window.

"Wait, _what_?" Damon frowned. "When did this happen?" He took in a deep breath. "Why does shit like this always happen while we're on the road? Stefan and I need to stop taking road trips."

Stefan turned to his brother, eyes narrowed, wary.

What in the world was happening _now_?

"Okay, thanks Ric. See you soon." He ended the phone call and rested the device against his mouth for a second while he thought, before finally turning to Stefan. "So, Ric's taking the first bus to Hollywood."

Stefan's wariness turned into full-blown worry. "Why is he doing that?"

"Because, it would seem, that's where _Katherine_ is going to be," Damon growled. "They searched the place where she had Elena's boyfriend and brother, and found enough evidence to show that Katherine's somehow connected with this whole Original thing."

"That can't be good." Stefan frowned.

"Yes, and the Originals are scheduled to be in Hollywood for something or the other, and Ric says she's going to be there as well." Damon made a face. "Want to bet that she lured us to Mystic Falls to keep us far away from where things were _really_ going to go down?"

"But why would she do that?" Stefan asked with a frown. "We didn't even know where she was, why would she benefit by our being in-?" His eyes widened as it made sense. "Chloe. She knew about Chloe."

"And she wanted to get to her without us being in the way." Damon had already figured it out, expression grim. "She's got too many years on Chloe… Our girl won't stand a chance on her own."

Stefan was already reaching for his phone, calling.

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The sound was loud and jarring.

Lois pulled herself off of the love seat and sent a glance in the direction that Dean had dragged Chloe off to while Lois had been pretending to be asleep. The brunette took in a deep breath and went to her cousin's new phone, the one Lois didn't have the number of, and picked up the ringing thing, finding the name STEFAN and a picture of a handsome man flashing on the screen. This was one of the vampires who Chloe had been hanging around with while she'd been disappeared. These were the people who had so much power over her cousin, who, with one phone call, could convince the blonde to leave again.

Taking in a deep breath, Lois muted the call and waited for it to ring out before turning it off. She felt horrible for doing this, but she'd just gotten her cousin back and she wasn't going to allow these vampires to take her away.

And with that Lois went to the wall and opened one of the windows. The brunette hesitated only a split second before throwing the cellular out of the three-story building and watching it smash into pieces below.

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**TBC**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Don't own Smallville/Supernatural/Vampire Diaries**

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"Morning sleepy head." Chloe's smile was the first thing Sam saw when he emerged from his bedroom, eyes still half-closed in sleep, and hair a mess.

"Hey." He smiled in return, voice hoarse and expression a mixture of intrigue and delight.

"You overslept," Dean scolded good-naturedly from where he was setting the table, which signaled to Sam the fact that the world was about to end at any minute. The younger Winchester was tempted to go to the window to peek outside and see if he could catch a glimpse of the four Horsemen as they galloped by.

"I was about to go in and dump ice all over you!" Lois informed him with a bright smile from where she sat on the kitchen counter, swinging her legs.

"I barely managed to convince her to at least let you sleep until the food was finished," Chloe chuckled, returning her attention to the stove. "Especially considering the fact that Dean was egging her on."

That was not surprising.

Sam didn't know what had happened between last night and this morning, but he was relieved. The tension that'd simmered between his brother and Chloe seemed to have died down considerably, and Dean wasn't watching the blonde's every move as if waiting for her to try and make a run for it.

"So, Perry and Martha are expecting a visit in Metropolis soon, and I _really_ think it's work related." Lois chewed on a strawberry. "Technically, Chloe's been on a sabbatical this whole time."

Chloe made a face as she tended to the eggs and bacon. "I'm not sure if my fanged-self is ready for that, and Damon and Stefan don't need the added publicity. Despite the fact that vampires are out of the proverbial coffin now, I know for a fact that most of us will prefer anonymity."

The smiles on the trio's faces muted slightly at the mention of the Salvatores.

Chloe didn't seem to have noticed, turning off the stove and grabbing the empty plates next to her. "By the way, have you seen my phone? I seem to have misplaced it somewhere, and it's apparently dead, because no matter how many times I've used Lois' phone to call my own, I can't hear it."

"Sorry, I haven't seen it since last night." Sam shook his head, receiving the plate of eggs, bacon and pancakes.

"I feel the need to make a joke about a vampire's phone being dead, but I'm going to refrain," Dean mumbled to himself.

Chloe rolled her eyes and snickered in Lois' direction.

"Thanks." Lois didn't meet Chloe's gaze, smiling tremulously as she received her own plate and went towards the table.

"What's the rush with your phone anyway?" Dean wanted to know as he grabbed his own plate. "S'not like the world is going to end if you miss _one_ phone call from Vampire Inc."

"I have important information on that phone which doesn't just involve Damon and Stefan." Chloe declared as she joined the others by the table, pulling out a chair and sitting down. "I need that phone."

Sam noticed Lois look up at that, eyes wide as guilt and worry flashed over her hazel orbs.

Apparently she was the reason why Chloe couldn't find her phone.

"Wow… You know, for a fang, you can still _cook_." Dean changed the subject as he took a bite of her food.

"How does it work, you know, being a vampire and eating normal food?" Lois latched onto the subject nearly desperately. "I mean, obviously I know you can eat our food because you've been eating, but, uh-I've read vampire lore and I thought vampires could eat human food, but have to throw it up later because it makes them sick?"

"Reading Twilight does _not_ constitute as 'studying vampiric lore'," Chloe teased, ducking the pinch of salt Lois threw at her with a cry of mock insult. "And we're fine when it comes to human food. We don't need it to survive, but we can still consume and digest it. There are some vampires who have stopped eating it at all, unless to keep their cover as humans, but Damon still relishes it, and Stefan and I alternate cooking at home."

Home.

Sam fought the urge to flinch at that word, knowing he was more successful than Dean and Lois, who both gazed resentfully at their plates at the casual comment.

Chloe was truly at ease with the brothers.

They shared a _home_.

They were a _family_.

Sam knew that Dean had yet to accept it, but the younger Winchester had realized from a long time ago that they would never be able to tear Chloe away from Damon and Stefan. She depended on the vampires for so much, and the brothers did as well when it came to her. They shared a symbiotic relationship, both sides getting what they needed to survive and be happy, and from the little Sam had gathered he realized that Chloe was also the glue that kept the Salvatore brothers together. He'd seen (or heard) during the skype or phone calls, the many fights Chloe had ended between Stefan and Damon, fights which seemed about to end in the loss of appendages.

There was no way the vampires would let go of the blonde without a fight-hadn't Stefan told him that on the phone?

"Why don't you use my phone to call Stefan and see how they're doing?" Sam found himself offering, ignoring the ugly looks Dean and Lois sent him.

Chloe, though, gave him a beautiful smile. "Thanks Sam, I'll do that in a little bit."

Dean kicked him under the table.

Sam hissed and sent his brother a firm shake of his head before concentrating on eating, and on making his game plan.

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"Her phone keeps going to voicemail." Stefan frowned as he tapped his phone to his lips and stared unseeingly at the road in front of him.

"Something's not right." Damon had been tense ever since Ric's phone call. The knowledge that Katherine was working along with the Originals, maybe even working _for_ the Originals, having put him on edge. "She wouldn't keep her phone off this long. Not with everything's that has been going on."

"She might want some time alone with the Winchesters." But even as he said that Stefan doubted that, shaking his head.

"Or Katherine could have her grubby little hands on her." Damon pressed harder on the gas.

"We don't know that." Stefan tried to remind his older brother despite the fact that he himself found it hard to stay calm and controlled in this uncertainty. "We don't even know for a fact that Chloe's the reason Katherine made us go to Mystic Falls. It could be something else entirely, and we're just getting overprotective and worried for nothing."

"When is it ever that easy?" Damon shot back, taking a corner at a break-neck speed. "When have we _ever_ gotten a break like that? Especially if Katherine is involved? If she's decided to stop playing dead and come out from whatever hole she's been hiding in all these years then there has to be a very important reason."

"But we don't know that it has to do with _Chloe_." Stefan tried.

"There's a reason we've tried to keep Baby Vamp hidden all this time, Stefan." Damon glared at him, the pressure he had on the steering wheel bending it slightly. "She's not the average vampire. That makes her a target. And she's too damn young to protect herself."

But if they were really up against Originals; weren't they all pretty fucked in that department?

The question hung unasked yet recognized between the brothers.

Stefan's phone ringing was the only thing that pierced the silence, and when he saw the caller I.D. he felt a mixture of relief, jealousy and worry. "Hello?"

The I.D. said Sam Winchester, but the voice wasn't his. "Hey Stef, how's things?"

"_Chloe_." Stefan let relief take over, ignoring the way his brother's head swung in his direction. "Are you okay?"

"Give that to me," Damon snapped, trying to yank the phone away.

Stefan slapped his brother's hand away and kept the phone out of his reach. "Watch the road, damn it."

"I'm fine." Chloe sounded a little confused. "Is everything alright over there? Sam said that you'd spoken to him yesterday and that you were heading here. Did something happen? What about the Katherine and Elena situation? Are everyone back at Mystic Falls okay?"

Stefan ran his hand over his hair. "What happened to your phone? We've been calling you."

"Yeah… I'm trying to figure out where my phone is too," she mumbled. "But Sam offered to let me use his, so now that they're working out and Lois is bathing I decided to call. I really haven't been alone since arriving."

"She's been the belle of the ball, huh?" Damon, with his vampire hearing, snorted. "Fucking Prom Queen."

"That was only thanks to the alternative vote!" Chloe proved her hearing was fine as she grumbled at that one.

Rolling his eyes, Stefan switched to speakerphone. "Chloe, Katherine hightailed it out Mystic Falls the second we got there."

"Oh." Her voice went soft. "I'm sorry. I know how much you both, but especially Damon, needed to talk to her and clear things between you all."

"Fuck that. It's not the important part." Damon interrupted her heartfelt feelings. "She left Mystic Falls because she's heading to Hollywood."

There was a pause. "_She's coming here?_"

"Ric called and told Damon that he believed Katherine is somehow involved with the Originals." Stefan tapped his finger against the dashboard. "And they're supposed to be doing something in Hollywood soon."

"Yeah, it's a series of public events." She seemed to be on top of the situation. "By the way: Originals. You never told me about them before."

"Didn't know about them before," Damon shot back.

"That isn't good," she mumbled to herself. "Did Ric or Elena or anybody at all have any idea as to _why_ they've decided to come out of the coffin?"

"It can't be for anything good." Stefan was sure of that. "The fact that the Klaus Compelled those watching his broadcast says it all. They plan on making things go their way, by hook or crook."

"Which, you can understand." Of course, Damon could sympathize.

Stefan rolled his eyes. "We've driven nonstop and should be there in a couple of hours-by sunset at tops. Ric will be arriving a little later."

"Ric's coming?" Chloe sounded both nervous and excited, she'd always been intrigued yet intimidated by the Vampire Hunter.

"Yeah, yeah." Damon made a face. "We're going to need a safe place to crash. Know of any? Cuz last I knew you didn't own a place in Tinseltown."

"Let me think a moment." She could be heard moving out of a door, outside noises louder, proving she'd probably gone to a roof or balcony or something. People could be heard calling her name from afar off. "Paparazzi are totally stalking this place, they've actually camped outside and so I'm waving at them right now, trying to give them some shots so hopefully they'll go away."

"My girl's a celebrity," Damon snorted.

"I wouldn't say _celebrity_." But Chloe's voice was obviously amused. "We couldn't stay here or at Lois', and I don't have a place of my own…" she went quiet. "I know a place. It's not all gothic horror storyesque like Damon usually likes-."

"Hey!" Damon cried out.

Stefan grinned for the first time since they'd been separated.

"-but it will do just fine." She took in a deep breath. "I missed you guys."

"Yeah, can totally tell." Damon was being a spoiled, sulking brat. "The second we turned our backs you ran to the Winchesters."

"Damon, don't." Stefan tried.

"Look, once you guys come, we need to talk," Chloe announced.

The vampires went still, dread filling them at those horrible words.

"When you're an hour or so outside of Hollywood give me a call. I need to prepare stuff for when you get here." And with that she hung up.

Silence remained in the car in her wake, the vampires having a sinking feeling that they were about to lose their girl.

"I'll kill them," Damon promised calmly.

That worried Stefan so much more than his brother's previous furious snarls. "Damon…"

But Damon ignored him, gaze resolute on the road in front of him.

Stefan observed his brother before his gaze slid to the window, the younger vampire wondering if he'd really try stopping Damon if it meant keeping Chloe. He could look the other way. Stefan could let Damon be the bad guy, which was a part Damon was good at and reveled in. Stefan could say he hadn't known what Damon had been planning. He could let Chloe be angry at his brother. Stefan could console the blonde through her mourning of the Winchesters' deaths, and her fury at Damon for his part in said deaths. He could be there to pick up the pieces. He _could_. It shocked Stefan to realize that maybe his darker self wasn't completely gone, because that was Ripper-reasoning right there.

What shocked Stefan even worse was to realize and admit (even if only to himself) that if it meant not losing Chloe, he might be fine with the Ripper-logic.

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Chloe raised her hand to knock on the bathroom that Lois was in, but stopped when she heard her cousin on the phone arguing with John Winchester. The blonde took in a deep breath and instead went towards the gym, where Sam and Dean were talking amongst themselves while doing their morning workout. She walked in, pausing for a moment to admire their shirtless glory, before clearing her throat and bringing their attention to her.

"I have to go out for a bit." She leaned against the Bowflex.

"Is everything okay?" Sam frowned, putting down the weights and grabbing a hand-towel to wipe the sweat from his face as he sat up.

"I'm not sure," she admitted, folding her arms over her chest and leaning her head against the metal. "Seems my Grandsire, who's a huge bitch by the way, might be heading here and could be connected to the Originals. Stefan, Damon, and a friend are headed this way. I need to feed if I'm going to deal with whatever's going on and then I need to ready some things." She picked up Sam's phone, which had been in her pocket. "Can I borrow this? That way you can call me if anything since I can't find my phone anywhere."

"Sure," Sam nodded.

Dean stood. "What's going on, Chlo?"

"I honestly have no idea, and that's not a good thing." She turned to leave before turning back towards them. "Do you have any vacation time coming to you? Maybe it would be better for the both of you to be safe and sound somewhere far from Hollywood until this all blows over." She paused. "And if you could trick Lois into going with you that would be great. Or, if the tricking doesn't work, just whacking her over the head with something and keeping her drugged until it's safe to come back would work too. You have my permission as her next of kin to do that."

"You want us to run and hide with our tails between our legs?" Dean glared at her.

"Now that's some image." She snorted, shaking her head.

"Is there any way we can help?" Sam stood as well, concern all over his face.

She smiled at them both, quickly finding herself reacclimatizing herself to them. "Thanks, but for now I have to deal with this on my own." She began backing away. "Until this blows over it would probably be best if we aren't seen too much together-at least until we figure out what exactly is going on."

Dean glared harder at her. "We might just be humans, but we're not cowards."

"And that's what worries me." She agreed without battle. "I won't let you guys get hurt. You or Lois." The phone in her hands rung and she gazed at the number before answering. "Ric? How did you get-?"

"Stefan gave me the number," the vampire hunter admitted.

"I see. Stefan's always thinking two steps ahead of me." She always felt both fascinated and intimidated by the handsome hunter, clearing her throat and pulling a strand of hair behind her ear as she slipped out of the gym to leave the brothers to their workout. "I just finished talking to Stefan and Damon and they filled me in. Said you should be arriving tonight?"

There was a hesitation. "I actually caught a plane. I'm here. Come to the window. The one facing the south."

Her eyes widening, Chloe raced to the window instructed, gazing out passed the paparazzi taking pictures, searching, _searching_, until she found Alaric leaning in an alleyway saluting her. "You haven't told them everything, have you?"

He sighed, shaking his head.

"Chloe?" Lois could be heard behind her. "Is everything okay?"

Chloe turned and nodded, giving her cousin a little smile, before turning back to Alaric with a frown. "Where?"

"There's a Chinese place some blocks from here. Has a red chicken on it. You know the place?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

"See you there in ten." And with that Alaric ended the phone call, pulling up his hoodie and walking away, hands in his pockets.

Chloe placed her hand to the glass, eyes narrowed. "What's going on?"

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"Something is so obviously up it isn't even funny." Lois paced the living room floor with the newly bathed brothers, uneasy. "First the Original Vampires let the fanged cat out of the bag, and then Chloe Grandsire is somehow mixed up in it and then this other guy? The Vampire Hunter who hangs around with vampires?" How weird was that, anyway? "Something big is going down and she's shutting us out."

"She's trying to protect us." But it was obvious that Sam was barely keeping control of his annoyance either.

"Yeah, because we're _frail humans_." Dean's annoyance was icy as he growled.

"If that pack of picture-taking leeches weren't outside we could tail her and force our way into this somehow." Lois continued pacing.

There was a knock on the door.

Wondering who the hell that was, and hoping that it wasn't John, Lois hurried to the door before the boys could, opening it wide to see a petite, gorgeous woman with brown curls standing there with an angelic smile on her face. "Yeah?"

"Is Chloe here?" The woman wanted to know.

Lois' eyes narrowed. "No. Who are you?"

"Where is she?" The woman didn't answer, looking around her.

"I don't know." Lois _really_ didn't like this woman.

The tiny brunette stepped forwards and her eyes shifted with Compulsion, betraying her for what she really was. "Invite me inside."

"Hell. No." Lois growled, tightening her hold on the door.

The woman's eyes went wide. "How-?"

"_Vervain_." Lois clutched at the necklace Chloe had given her.

The vampire hissed at her, face transforming as her eyes bled black into her veins and her skin went pale as fangs descended.

"Get the hell away from our door." Dean was by Lois' side in a second, staying inside of the doorway. "This isn't a restaurant."

"Who are you?" Sam was on Lois' other side.

The woman's dark eyes went to Sam and Dean's necklaces before she growled. "Really? She gave you _all_ vervain necklaces? What sort of vampire _is_ she?" Annoyance was obvious on her petite form as her face morphed back to its human form. "This is all _Stefan's_ fault. If Damon had been in charge of her training…" she let that sentence fall short before suddenly sniffing, staring at the three of them before raising an eyebrow. "Interesting." She curved her lips in a smirk before shaking her head. "You tell Chloe that if she wants some sort of idea of what's about to befall her, she better get into contact with me. And soon." She pulled out a card and flung it through the barrier she couldn't get through due to not being invited in. "She needs me on her side if she's going to have any chance of getting out of this unscathed."

Lois bent down to pick up the card and stood, staring at the numbers written there, along with one word.

GRANNY.

Her eyes widened in understanding as she looked up to see that the vampire wasn't there anymore, having disappeared while their attention was drawn elsewhere.

"What is it?" Dean frowned.

"That was…" Sam's eyes widened.

Lois tightened the grip on the card. "_Katherine_."

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**TBC**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Don't own Smallville/Supernatural/Vampire Diaries**

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"Hey Ric," Chloe slipped into the alleyway next to him, a small smile on her face.

"It's good to see you Chloe." Alaric Saltzman surprised the blonde by giving her a hug. It wasn't that they were on bad terms or anything, he _was_ Damon's best friend, but Alaric had always been someone she'd always looked up to and felt a bit intimidated by in Mystic Falls, and whenever he'd been around she'd always tried to give him and Damon time to be alone. He was Damon's only friend and she'd wanted to give them space.

Still, she hugged him back tightly and smiled brightly once she pulled back. "How have you been doing?"

"It's been busy in Mystic Falls." Alaric made a face as he motioned for her to join him as they moved from the alleyway and began to walk together, mingling and losing themselves in the crowd. "But I'm here because of the Originals, and Katherine, and because of you, Chloe." His gaze rested on her as he sighed. "I feel bad for lying to Damon but I knew I needed to talk to you alone when he nor the others were around, but especially him."

"It's_ really_ not good, huh?" She licked her lips and pulled down the baseball cap she wore, trying to cover her face better as they spoke. "You're worried he's going to do something rash and reckless like he always does."

"You know Damon." Alaric let out a sigh. "If he knew you were in danger he'd do something incredibly stupid."

"Why exactly am I in danger though, and from whom this time? I mean, I know I'm somewhat different, but what part of my difference has made me a target, and who is targeting me?" Chloe turned her gaze towards him with a frown. "Is it Katherine?"

"Why am _I_ always painted the bad guy?" A voice wanted to know, causing both blondes to stop in their tracks. "Can't I actually want to _help_ for once?"

Chloe's eyes widened as she turned to her left to see the vampire she'd only heard about for so long, Katherine Pierce, standing in all her ridiculously high-heeled glory.

Alaric tensed before he let out a little sigh. "If you want to convince them to let you help, you'll have to come up with a more believable reason than you actually _wanting_ to help."

Chloe's eyes widened as she turned to Alaric. "_Huh_?"

"Why can't it just be out of the goodness of my blackened heart?" Katherine's lips twitched as she began to saunter towards them, hips swaying, curls bouncing perfectly. "So, hunter, you realized that I'm actually here to offer my assistance to my favorite boys and their little plaything. I have to admit that I'm impressed."

_Plaything_?

"It's part of the reason why I needed to talk to Chloe without Damon around." Alaric didn't look happy about this at all, in fact, he look very annoyed. "Damon wouldn't want to listen to reason and would just want to _kill_ you."

"I'm way older than him, plus his sire, I could handle his temper tantrum." Katherine rolled her eyes, obviously not taking that threat seriously. Her gaze then turned on Chloe observantly, examining the blonde thoroughly as she tapped a finger to her glossed lips. "Other than the need for a _serious_ fashion intervention, you're not too bad, I suppose."

Chloe felt completely confused. "What's going on?"

"Well, Goldielocks, let me put it this way…" Katherine reached out and picked judgmentally at Chloe's clothes, an unhappy expression on her pinched face. "Even though I stayed away, I kept an eye on my boys and so I know all about you and your… peculiarities. So I know that I'm not the only one who knows about them. I also know that egomanic of Klaus, and he's in the middle of a powerplay right now and wants you because you can give him something that he doesn't have, which means I don't want him to have you. And when it comes to keeping Klaus from having what he wants, well, let's just say I have _hundreds_ of years of experience."

"What could I possibly have that Klaus would want?" Chloe made a face.

Katherine rolled her eyes. "I know you're blonde, but just stop and think about it for two seconds."

Chloe glared at her Grandsire.

Alaric glared at Katherine as well before he turned to Chloe. "What's your greatest ability?"

Chloe honestly couldn't think of one except: "Being able to go into a house without being invited?"

"Wait, I didn't know that one." Katherine blinked her thick eyelashes.

Alaric ignored Katherine. "What did Klaus do when he let out the vampire secret?"

And then it hit Chloe, hard. "He Compelled all those who _weren't_ wearing Vervain."

"_Dingdingding_, we have a winner!" Katherine folded her arms over her chest as she raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow. "And who is the _only_ vampire that we know of who seems to only be able to use her Compulsion on people _using_ Vervain?"

"Just how closely have you been watching us?" Chloe narrowed her eyes at Katherine.

"Believe me, if it wasn't for the fact that you were useful, I would have killed you a _long_ time ago," Katherine assured her spitefully. "But despite the fact that you've taken my two favorites from me, you're probably the most interesting vampire to have come from my bloodline, and there's no way in _hell_ that I'm letting anything happen to you." She snorted. "_Or_ letting Klaus get his grubby hands on you, and through you, total world domination."

Chloe made a face at the older vampire. "It wouldn't matter even if he did 'get his hands on me' because I wouldn't help him."

"That's sweet, but you wouldn't have a choice," Katherine sneered. "Originals have a nifty little ability you don't know of: they can Compel _other vampires_."

Chloe's eyes widened. "_What_?"

"It's one of the perks of being the first of the species." Katherine was obviously highly annoyed with this. "Believe me, it's highly unpleasant because you think that once you're not human anymore you're free from the threat of Compulsion ever again. Boy, are _you_ wrong." She was obviously speaking from experience. "That doesn't matter now though, what matters is that Klaus knows about you and your ability, and he is planning on using you to finish Compelling the rest of the world."

Alaric narrowed his eyes. "Why wouldn't you want this? You're a vampire. Wouldn't you want even those wearing Vervain to think vampires are harmless and friendlies?"

"Of course." Katherine's smirk was pure mischief before her expression went serious. "But I don't trust what Klaus will do with no one to oppose him."

Chloe's phone rang and she reached into her pocket, pulling it out to see that the number was Dean's. She answered the phone. "Hey, uhm, now isn't the best-."

"Your psycho vampire grandmother was here."

Chloe's lips twitched when she saw Katherine pout at the description, the brunette able to hear him thanks to her vampiric hearing. "I'm staring at her right now, actually."

"What? Are you okay? Do you need-?"

"I'm fine, Dean. Don't worry about me, I'll handle this. You guys just go about your normal day as if nothing weird is happening, it's the best thing that you all can do right now." She took in a deep breath. "I'll, uh, I'll talk to you later, and thanks for the heads up." She hung up the phone and stared at Katherine. "You leave them out of this."

"I go for two brothers and I'm labeled a whore. You, on the other hand, go for _four,_ and _what_ do you get? A _fanbase_." Katherine rolled her eyes. "Seriously, it's sickening." She planted her hands on her hips and turned to Alaric. "Have you read the fanfiction on the websites circling around on the internet? It's basically hardcore porn."

Alaric raised an eyebrow before he turned to Chloe. "We need a place where we can set up a homebase. I brought my gear with me. I'm guessing the Winchesters' place is off limits so…"

"I know a place we can use," she assured him. "It's not exactly the Ritz, but it's big, and most importantly, private and secure."

"How about with a living owner who'll invite us in?" Katherine wanted to know, hands anchored on her hips. "Because not _all_ of us can just go into places without being invited, but it's the best way to be safe from Klaus and other vampires in general."

"She's right," and Alaric looked pained to have to side with Katherine in any way. "Not that _I_ will have a problem with invitation, but Stefan and Damon will."

"I know," Chloe reassured him as she put the phone back into her pocket. "I've got that covered." And yet she hesitated, gaze on Alaric. "Damon and Stefan took me out of Mystic Falls so she wouldn't know about me, how can you be so sure that we can trust her?"

"We can't," Alaric announced. "Katherine is a manipulative personality who'd sell us if it'd get her ahead."

"I'm right here," the vampire reminded them.

"But, it would seem, from my research, that this Klaus wants her dead," the hunter continued, as if she hadn't spoken.

Katherine's eyes widened before they narrowed and darkened. "How the _hell_ do you know that?"

Alaric continued to ignore Katherine. "So it's in her best interest to protect you and keep you from him. And _that_ is something we can trust: her need to protect herself."

Katherine moved lightning fast and grabbed Alaric by his throat, her eyes black. "I _asked_ you a question."

Chloe moved and grabbed Katherine's fingers, bending them away from Ric's throat and pulling them free, pushing Katherine a couple of steps away as she moved in between the hunter and older vampire.

Katherine shook her head as she huffed. "Watch the manicure, I just got it done. Not that you'd know about those sorts of things. Your fingernails look like they're used to being bare."

Chloe ignored the constant jabs at her physical appearance and raised an eyebrow at the much older and stronger vampire. "I don't care if you're annoyed and jealous because you think I've stolen your favorite toys. If you really want to work together, you're going to do it our way or no way at all. And part of our way is that Ric doesn't get manhandled."

"I can take care of myself," he assured her.

Chloe ignored him, eyes narrowed on the brunette, realizing that this was Katherine testing her, seeing how far she could push, how far back the blonde would bend. Chloe had heard Stefan's stories about Katherine Pierce, and while Damon would only talk about Katherine when he was really drunk the blonde had heard about her from him as well, and she'd learnt a lot about the vampire who'd made the Salvatore brothers what they were. She knew Katherine was smart and cunning and resourceful, she knew that the brunette used people and situation to her advantage. The thing was that Chloe _knew_ all of this, and she wasn't about to be taken advantage of, or to be blindly manipulated or played by Katherine Pierce.

The brunette eyed her darkly as she took a menacing step towards the blonde. "I'm older and stronger than you, you should remember that."

"And _you_ need _us_," Chloe reminded. "_You_ should remember_ that_."

A muscle ticked in Katherine's cheek before she smirked darker. "We need _each other_."

Chloe let out a sigh.

That was what she was afraid of.

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"Damn it!" Dean was shaking with fury. "She's cutting us out!"

"She's trying to protect us, but-." Sam clenched his fist.

Lois was quiet as she grabbed her things and headed towards the door.

Dean frowned as he looked up at her. "Where are you doing?"

"I need fresh air," the brunette announced as she opened the door. "I'll be back later." With that she closed the door and headed down the hallway towards the elevator, feeling horrible for lying to the boys, but it couldn't be helped. She was acting on a hunch anyway. And it wasn't as if _they_ hadn't lied to her for a whole damned _year_ either, so this was payback.

Anyway, how she saw it, things were happening and those vampire dudes were coming. Chloe wouldn't be bringing them here so she'd need to find a place to hole up, somewhere safe, and from the rules that had been discussed last night, Lois believed she might have an idea where Chloe was headed right now. There was no way that the brunette could sneak out if she had Dean and Sam with her, but alone she could definitely get out of here unnoticed and check out the place to see if her hunch was right. If so, she could get her cousin to spill on what exactly was going on and make sure that she wasn't left out of the loop.

Lois wasn't going to lose her cousin this time.

Determined, the brunette pushed on.

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Ric's eyes lit up visibly as they pulled up towards the large cast iron gates to the humongous place. "Oh wow. I know you said it was big but I wasn't expecting _this_."

In the backseat, Katherine whistled as she leaned between the two front seats and looked in front as well, her eyebrow raised. "You've _got _to be joking."

Chloe sent the vampire a look. "What?"

"It looks haunted, for one." Katherine made a face.

Chloe hesitated a beat before decided to bluff for a reaction. "What if I said it was?"

Katherine sneered before she paused. "Wait, are you serious?"

Even Ric looked a little taken back by that one.

"I'm sure no one is going to cry if you don't stay with us," Chloe assured her.

Another muscle ticked in Katherine's cheek even as she smirked. "Why would I risk the chance though?" She raised her chin. "I was a _very_ important person in _both_ Stefan and Damon's lives, and I'm _sure_ once they see me they'll want to waste no time _catching up_." That smirk grew. "We'll probably stay late into the night."

Alaric snorted. "Yeah… I don't know about that one. Damon will probably try and stake you within the first five minutes."

Katherine turned her dark, unhappy eyes on him. "He might be unhappy with me right now, but once Damon cools off he'll understand _why_ I did what I did."

Feeling on edge, Chloe opened the door and emerged from the car as she headed towards the security box by the gate and flipped the lid open. She hesitated, knowing that there was no turning back once she did this, but this was the only place they could do this and she knew that _they_ wouldn't mind. It would only mean that she should be expecting a call, _very _soon.

Licking her lips, Chloe placed her hand down on the screen, letting it scan her prints until it beeped, and then pulled her hand away and moved so that her eyes could be scanned.

"_Identity confirmed_: _**Watchtower**_." A tinny voice announced from the security box. "Proceeding to _phase two_."

She blinked. Phase two? Since when had there been a phase two?

Suddenly the screen went blank, and a dial-tone could be heard.

Chloe's eyes widened. _No way_. There was _no way_ that-!

The screen suddenly showed somehow she hadn't expected to _see_, Oliver Queen sitting at his desk, his hands clasped in front of him, eyebrow raised. "Sidekick, long time no see."

"Ollie," she gulped, having been psyching herself for a _phone call_, not for _this_. "_Hi_."

He did not look pleased. "So, you're alive."

She flinched. "I deserve that."

He didn't deny it.

The blonde felt horrible and guilty and awkward as she stood there staring at him. "How's Dinah?""

"Relieved to know that you're alive, though pissed off to have found out through E!News, along with the rest of the world." Oliver Queen was seriously pissed off with her. "She's planning on joining Lana and Clark when they come to visit you."

Chloe blinked, surprised that Dinah really cared that much. It wasn't like they'd been besties, and considering that Dinah and Oliver were together now she would have thought that a mere phone call or message through someone else would have sufficed. "Oh, I-."

"You're lucky Bruce wasn't the one who answered this."

Seriously, just how pissed off _was_ Ollie?

"He, Dick, Helena and Barbara have been working night and day and have barely spent a day out of the… uh… you know where." Oliver leaned closer to the screen as he kept his narrowed eyes on her. "Otherwise he probably would have noticed the beeping before me and picked up and _then_ you'd be in the shitter."

He was acting as if she wasn't in the shitter now.

Chloe deserved it though, which was why she merely kept her head lowered and allowed him to say his mind.

Oliver merely sighed though. "It must be bad if you went there, knowing that you'd have to face one of us, and we _all_ know confrontations are not your strong suit." He sighed once more. "Chloe, I'm sorry, I-I'm just glad you're alive."

She nodded silently.

He leaned back hard on his seat and ran his hand over his face. "How can we help?"

Her voice was soft. "I just need some friends invited in."

"Invited in." He raised an eyebrow. "So, we're talking _vampires_."

She hesitated before she nodded.

Oliver frowned. "Chloe, do _vampires_ have to do with your disappearance a year ago?"

Chloe looked up at him finally. "I know I don't have the right to ask you for anything, Ollie, but you and Bruce co-own this place, and we need someplace safe."

Oliver frowned at her in silence before he took in a deep sigh. "We're not finished talking. I'll be getting in contact with you later. You owe us an explanation as to what the hell is going on there."

Chloe nodded slowly before she motioned to Katherine.

The vampire emerged from the car and sauntered towards them, eyeing Oliver with a smirk. "Well _hello_ gorgeous."

Oliver raised an eyebrow. "This one of them?"

Chloe nodded.

Oliver frowned as he leaned forwards. "You have my permission to enter."

Katherine smirked. "Thank you."

Chloe's "Thank you" was much more humble.

Katherine was much too amused.

Oliver's screen went blank.

"So, I'm counting _six_." Katherine turned to Chloe. "No matter what you like to think, you and I are not too different. My big sin was being unable to choose between men I loved, and from what I hear, you have the same exact problem."

Chloe frowned as she eyed Katherine, unable to deny that.

"So what's the big difference between us that makes _me_ the villain?" Katherine placed her hands on her hips before she turned and stormed towards the gates, pushing them open.

Chloe turned to look at the vampire, whose words rang hauntingly in her head.

Exactly what _did_ make them so different? If anything, in that regard, Chloe was a hundred times worse than Katherine considering that the brunette had only been torn between two men, and the blonde was currently torn between _four_.

A frown touching her lips, Chloe made her way back towards the car.

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"What is it?" Damon sent Stefan a look.

"It's Chloe." Stefan's gaze was on the screen of his phone. "She's just texted us the address of the place we're going to be staying. She says to let her know before we arrive because she needs to meet us outside. Apparently we need to be invited in."

"Smart, that way no other vampire can get into the house." Damon's gaze went to the front before he frowned. "Oh god, I hope it isn't with the Wonder Brats."

"I doubt they'd have us." Stefan licked his lips.

"Maybe that's what this little talk is all about." Damon's grip on the steering wheel tightened.

"No use worrying about it now." Stefan was, as always, boringly right. "We're almost there and we can find out when we do."

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Lois didn't recognize the car in the front but knew that the fact that there was a car inside the gates at all meant that her hunch had been right and this was where her cousin had gone to. She got out of her own car and went towards the security box, flipping it open and slamming her palm down on it and letting it read her before pulling her palm away and letting her eyes be read.

"_Identity confirmed:__** Legs**_." She was seriously going to kill Oliver for making that her overall codename, but considering that the gate opened she didn't complain too much, merely entered her car, drove up, and parked next to the other car. The girl looked up at the rearview mirror to make sure the gates were closing and then jumped when she realized that Chloe was suddenly standing next to her door. "Jesusfuck! Don't _do_ that!"

The door opened, and an unhappy Chloe frowned at her. "What are you doing here?"

"You think a year apart made me forget how you think?" Lois rolled her eyes as she reached into the passenger's seat and grabbed a bag, pushing it into Chloe's chest. "Here, take this." She emerged from the car and went to the backseat. "My other stuff's in the backseat, and I have our other stuff in the trunk. The essentials."

Chloe held the bag tightly to her chest. "You shouldn't be here."

"Who's ride is that, by the way?" Lois motioned with her chin to the car.

"A friend rented it when he arrived," Chloe hedged. "Lois, you really shouldn't-it's _dangerous_."

"I know, you're going to have those two vampires around you." Lois frowned at the thought as she grabbed the bags from the back and passed one to Chloe before slinging one of the straps around her own shoulder and grabbing the handle of the humongous suitcase, which could thankfully be wheeled around.

"It's not _them_ I'm worried about." Chloe sent a look towards the house as she fixed the strap around her shoulder and even took the other from Lois as well, obvious much stronger now as a vampire. "Katherine's here."

Lois hesitated a second before she somehow managed to yank the ridiculously huge suitcase out of the back of the car and to the ground, and slammed the door closed. "Met her for a split second, she seems like a bitch."

"Well, she won't win Miss Congeniality, that's for sure." Chloe moved to block Lois' way when the brunette turned towards the building. "Which is why I'm sure you can understand _why_ the thought of you and her sleeping under the same roof does _not_ sit well with me."

Lois stared at her cousin, who was burdened down with all of her bags, before she let out a little sigh. "I'm not leaving, Chlo."

The blonde stared at her before she looked away. "You think I'm going to just disappear again without saying goodbye, just like Dean does."

"I get why you did why you did." Lois licked her lips. "But I also get what you are now, Chloe. You're a bloodsucking vampire, and I realize that I've missed out on a lot of this whole new person you've become." She steeled herself. "I'm not going to miss out on anymore. We've always been the most important persons in each other's lives, above jobs and boyfriends, and that hasn't changed for me."

Chloe stared at her in silence, and for a split second Lois was scared the blonde was going to tell her that it had changed for _her. _And then Chloe gave a whimper, dropped Lois' bags to the ground, wrapped her arms around Lois tightly and hugged her. "I'll protect you."

Lois let out a little sniffle and would have hugged Chloe back, but the way Chloe was hugging her had her arms locked at her sides so she was unable to reciprocate the action. "I don't need _protecting_. Just teach me how to protect myself, and how to be useful."

"I-I know the _perfect_ person to that sort of stuff," Chloe's voice was hoarse as she pulled away, a smile on her face. "He's the friend who rented the car, actually. He hunts vampires."

"Right," Lois nodded, having forgotten about the vampire hunter who was friends with vampires. "How does a vampire hunter befriends vampires? I'm curious."

"It's a complicated story, you'll have to ask him one day when he's drunk." Chloe picked up Lois' stuff once more. "Come on, I'll introduce you to Ric. We'll come back for the things in the trunk."

Lois nodded with a smile as they moved towards the entrance of the converted, abandoned hotel, which had once been a base of operations for the JL but had long since been abandoned and all intelligence on their operations scrubbed when they'd moved to their next HQ. It was now one of their many safe-houses located all across the globe.

On the way in they nearly ran into a tall, handsome blonde male who'd been on his way out.

"Sorry!" The guy blinked before his eyes widened. "You're Lois Lane!"

Lois blinked right back at him. "Guilty as charged."

Chloe looked between them curiously.

"I, uh, I watch Paranormal." The guy cleared his throat as he scratched the back of his head. He then shook his head as he held his hand out towards her. "Where are my manners? My name's Alaric Saltzman. I'm a friend of Chloe's, Damon's and Stefan's."

"Lois Lane, but you already knew that." Lois reached out her hand to shake his, admiring his strong grip. "So, Chloe said I should wait till you're drunk to ask-but how does a vampire hunter make friends with vampires?"

"_Lois!"_ Chloe's eyes widened.

"No, it's okay." Ric's lips twitched as he nodded. "It's a _very_ long, complicated story."

Lois eyed him thoughtfully. "You can tell me while you're training me then."

"Training you?" Alaric blinked, his gaze going to Chloe, only now seeming to realize how burdened down she was and taking some of the bags from her.

"She's going to be staying here, I can't get her to leave," Chloe gave a sigh. "So I was thinking that maybe you could give her lessons on how to protect herself, especially with the Princess of Darkness hanging around."

"_I can hear you_," Katherine's voice echoed from somewhere in the building.

Chloe ignored that, eyes on Ric, who nodded. "_Thanks_."

"No problem," the hunter gave her a small smile. "Considering she already has prior martial arts knowledge, and has the proper personal motivation, I think she'll take to this quickly."

Lois grinned brightly, admittedly excited at the prospect of not only having managed to get Chloe to accept the fact that she was going to stay here, but learning actual vampire hunting techniques from an honest to god _vampire hunter_. This day was suddenly seriously looking up.

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**TBC**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: Don't own Smallville/Supernatural/Vampire Diaries**

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Oliver had answered long enough to invite Stefan and Damon in, and then had had to log off to head into a meeting, still promising Chloe that they were going to have a longer conversation later on. Thankfully they weren't going to have that conversation now though, because Chloe was already going to be busy with other awkward conversations. Like the one she was going to have right now, just as soon as the boys got out of the car they were parking on the other side of Lois'. Everyone else were inside, giving her the time she needed to break the news to Stefan and Damon about their guests.

"Hey." Stefan smiled tiredly at her as he closed the door. "You're a sight for sore eyes."

"Whose cars are those?" Damon frowned as he emerged from his own car, eyes narrowed.

Chloe decided to ignore Damon's question for now and instead smiled back at Stefan as her sire wrapped his arms around her and lifted her off of her feet into the air in a hug, giving her a small twirl as he breathed in her scent. "How was Elena?"

"Fine." Stefan hugged her tightly and pulled away only enough to press a deep yet soft kiss to her lips. "I've missed you."

Chloe smiled softly up into his face. "I've missed you both too."

Damon snorted. "Yeah, we can totally tell. First chance you got, you came here to the Terrible Twosome."

Chloe sighed as her gaze moved over towards him. "It's something I needed to do, Damon."

He raised an eyebrow, a muscle ticking in his jaw. "Isn't there something _else_ you need to do?"

Her lips twitched in amusement as she shared a little glance with Stefan and slipped out of his arms before heading towards Damon. "I don't know, you seem pissed off at me, you might bite."

Damon didn't even give her a ghost of a smile.

Chloe sighed once more as she finally reached the oldest Salvatore and placed her hands on his chest. "Don't be angry with me."

He placed his hands on her hips. "You make it _so hard_ not to be."

Chloe stared up into his face before she reached up on her tiptoes and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. "I _did _miss you as well, you know." Her fingers trailed designs on his shirt as she took in a deep breath. "We have to talk about something and I don't want you to get pissed at me because of what I'm about to say."

Damon's eyes narrowed on her. "Why are you so worried?"

"I'm picking up on the same thing." Stefan was on the alert. "What's going on?"

Chloe sighed as she pulled away and hugged herself. "Ric's here. So is Lois. They'll be staying with us. Those are their cars."

"How the hell did Ric beat us here?" Damon made a face.

Stefan eyed Chloe thoughtfully. "I know that you've been worried about how you'd react being in close quarters with your cousin given your issues with bloodlust, but I do not think that her presence is what has you like this."

Damon was ridiculously calm, and that scared her. He only went calm right before he murdered someone highly sadistically.

"You're right, Stefan. This has nothing to do with Lois at all but with someone else entirely, another _relationship_ entirely." The blonde licked her lips. "Before I say anymore you have to promise me that you'll hear me out completely and you won't try to kill-."

Damon sneered. "I knew it." He shook his head and turned to Stefan. "I told you."

Stefan looked away, his face dark.

Chloe looked between them, confused. "Wait, you two _know_? How did you-?"

"What do you take us for, idiots?" Damon was still horribly calm. "But I won't allow it."

Chloe could understand his stance on not letting Katherine stay and work along with them, and she wasn't too happy with it herself, but they _had_ to, and he had to see that. She wasn't taking Katherine's side against his. She wasn't. "Damon, I understand how this must hurt you, and the last thing I would want to do would be to hurt you, _either_ of you, but I've been thinking this over and it seems like the right thing to do-like the only rational thing to do."

"Rational?" Stefan surprised her with the sharpness in his tone. "What in this is _rational_?"

Okay. She hadn't expected _him_ to be so emotional when it came to _Katherine_ of all people. Elena? Yes. But _Katherine_? Maybe the vampire was right. Maybe they still had feelings for their sire.

The thought hurt but she really didn't have any right to feel bad about it all things considering, so Chloe just pushed back the spark of jealousy as she licked her lips. "Everything." She lowered her head, and that way missed the hurt and murderous expressions that flashed through their vampiric gazes. "I know that if you sit down and think about it, it seems like the worse idea possible, that it's destined to fail horribly, but I don't know." She took in a deep breath. "Something in me, I don't know what it is, is telling me that it'll work somehow."

"What, you think it's _destiny_ or something?" Damon sneered.

Chloe made a face. "No. I wouldn't use that word at all."

Stefan looked a little more relieved for some reason. "If you don't, then obviously you don't feel as strongly as you think you do."

Chloe frowned as she looked up at them. "But even _Ric_ thinks this is the right course of action."

The shock on the vampires' faces was palpable.

"_What_?" Stefan snapped.

"I'm gonna _kill_ him," Damon whispered softly in promise, face pale, eyes bloody, veins appearing. "And I'm gonna snap his ring _and_ finger off first."

Chloe's eyes widened in horror and confusion. "I get it, she's a bitch. But _why_ is the thought of working along with Katherine enough to make you _say_ something like that? That's _horrible_ Damon!" She shook her head, disappointed in him. "Alaric is your _best friend_ and he's here to _help_ us. He deserves better than that from you. You should feel ashamed of yourself for even-_why are you two looking at me like that_?"

Damon and Stefan were both staring at her with utterly confused expressions on their faces, as if she was speaking a foreign language.

Stefan cleared his throat, clearly uneasy. "You're telling me that Katherine is here?"

Damon made a face. "And that we're _working_ _with_ her?"

Chloe licked her lips in confusion. "Isn't that what we were just arguing about?"

The male vampires shared a long look.

Stefan cleared his throat as his gaze turned to Chloe. "So when you said you didn't want us to kill someone-."

"-you were talking about _Katherine,"_ Damon finished, an "_ahhh_!" expression on his face. "Because we hate her guts."

Chloe looked between the two of them, eyes narrowed. "If you two weren't talking about Katherine-just what the hell were we arguing about two seconds ago?"

The whole situation seemed to finally hit Damon at that second because his eyes suddenly narrowed. "Wait. Katherine's _here_? And we're just buddying up with that bitch and working with her? What the _hell_ Chloe? And Ric's fallen for whatever scam she's playing?"

"She says she needs to explain herself to you two, about what happened all those years ago."

"I don't give a shit." Damon looked away.

Chloe reached out and grabbed his hand. "You should listen to her, if only to give yourself closure."

He sneered down at her and jerked his hand out of hers. "Or to give you an easy-out clause? Which one?"

Chloe frowned as she looked up at him. "_What_?"

He shook his head at her, reached into the car, grabbed his bag, and stormed towards the hotel, his walk betraying his fury.

The blonde watched him go as she hugged herself. "Why is he so angry with me?"

Now that she thought about it, _everyone_ was kind of angry with her, but she deserved it, didn't she? That's what happened when you kept running away and kept people hanging. Maybe Katherine was right about her.

Stefan's arms wrapped around Chloe from behind, her sire able to soothe her unlike any other. He rested his chin on her shoulder and nuzzled his cheek against her own as his hands went to her hips and drew her back into him. "He's hurt and lashing out, Chloe, you need to give him some space."

The blonde bit her bottom lip and sighed. "I'm screwing everything up, again."

"You will if you run away from us, again."

She flinched at that and turned her gaze towards his face, her lips ghosting over his softly. "I wasn't running away from you two."

"Sure felt like that when we turned on the television and saw you were in Hollywood."

The girl felt slapped, and turned in his embrace so she was facing him, cupping his jaw. "We're closer than family, Stefan. I know that when you and Elena finally sort out your issues-and that no matter how many conquests Damon ends up getting-that I'll always have a part of you they don't. I thought that by now you two would realize that it's the same with me, but if I haven't made that obvious, I'm sorry."

Stefan did not look reassured, if anything, he looked more perturbed. "You think I'm going to get back with Elena?"

"Stefan, you fell in love with two people who look identical." Chloe glanced away. "I'd call that destiny."

"Both times that relationship ended badly, Chloe." Stefan frowned. "I think the universe got its message across to me: look for someone else."

"And yet any time she's in danger she calls you and you go running to her, there are obviously feelings still between you and that's okay." The blonde smiled up at him. "You and Katherine didn't work out, that doesn't mean you and her Doppelgänger can't work out. It just means that you know what _not_ to do with Elena." Chloe sighed as she stared up into Stefan's face. "I think you should listen to whatever Katherine has to say about why she did what she did to you and Damon all those years ago, and _not_ because of any 'get-out easy clause' or anything ridiculous like that."

He eyed her in silence before asking: "Then why?"

She frowned at him. "Because I can understanding loving more than one person at the same time and how it can drive you to do stupid things you live to regret, and carry with you."

Stefan frowned right back at her before he sighed and pressed his forehead against hers. "Don't compare yourself to her."

"What really makes her and me all that different?"

Stefan tightened his grip on her shoulders. "So many things."

"She only liked two guys, Stefan. I'm mixed up over _four_, which makes me not only seriously indecisive, but kinda slutty." Chloe closed her eyes tightly. "I get that she's kind of a bitch, but at least-."

"Chloe, when Sam and Dean found out about what you were, what did you do? What was your instinctive reaction? It was to force them away to protect them. You-you _care_ about them but you were going to sacrifice that for their greater good." Stefan glared at her angrily. "Do you know what Katherine did when I found out what she was and freaked out? She Compelled me to accept her vampirism, to not care what she was, to love that part of her."

Chloe's eyes widened in shock at this revelation.

"She didn't even try to bring me around normally, it just wasn't worth the time and effort to her."

Chloe licked her lips.

Stefan wasn't finished. "When Damon and I fight, you get in the middle and argue alongside us, and pull our ears, and withhold sex-anything you have to do to make sure that he and I make our peace by the end of the day." His grip on her was becoming painful. "Katherine, on the other hand, lived to pit us against each other, loved to make us jealous of the other. Her greatest joy was to see us fighting over her like rabid, starving dogs."

Chloe gasped as she was turned and slammed back harshly into the car.

"I'll listen to whatever she has to say because that is what you want, but if I _ever_ hear you comparing yourself to her again I think I might lose it."

Chloe gulped, never having seen Stefan quite like this before, other than the day he'd killed her. "You're just as angry as Damon is at me."

She hadn't realized it until now.

"I'm pissed off," he agreed as he planted rough, un-Stefan-like kisses down the side of her neck, keeping her trapped against the vehicle. "I've been stuck with Damon for far too long without you to make it bearable. I'd forgotten what it was like to be around him without you as a buffer, forgotten how much I disliked it-could dislike _him_." He insinuated a thigh between hers, his chuckle dark at the hitch in her breathing. "Things have been _tense_, to say the least."

Stefan rubbed her with his thigh, leaving Chloe a ball of whimpers and tremors as she clutched at his shirt and leaned her head against his chest.

Stefan suddenly stopped, his expression a mixture of pleasure and guilt. "You're just as pent up as I am."

"Of c-course I a-am." Chloe could hardly talk, her body a knot of desire. "I haven't seen you two in days!"

For some reason that answer visible pleased Stefan and he beamed as he wrapped her in his arms tightly, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "I'm a little less angry now."

"You're obviously sadistic, just like Damon," she grumbled.

"Nope, when it comes to you I'm definitely sure I'm more masochistic than sadistic," he chuckled wryly before kiss her deeply.

Chloe whimpered, her body already oversensitive as she opened her mouth to the kiss and pushed her hips out towards him. The blonde swallowed his groan as she brushed against his growing bulge.

Something inside the building broke, and shouting could be heard.

Chloe and Stefan groaned as they pulled away from each other reluctantly.

More shouting and breaking could be heard.

Chloe made to go towards the building, but found Stefan's grip on her keeping her in place.

"Do we have to?" He near whined. "Can't we just stay out here, kiss some more, and just let them work it out like adults?"

Someone screeched.

Stefan sighed. "_Fine_."

Giving him a little smile, Chloe grabbed her sire's hand and led the reluctant vampire towards the building.

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Lois ignored the arguing and fighting and breaking of objects going on below, the brunette frowning as she watched Chloe and the other vampire moving towards the building. She'd wanted to observe her cousin with the fangs, and while things with the first one seemed tense as hell (which was promising), this one had started out tense as well but had ended up uncomfortably (for Lois) tender. It was obvious to the brunette that the relationship between Chloe and the vampire was an extremely close and loving one, and that despite the fact that Chloe had said that things were different for vampires, and that she and the Salvatores weren't in a relationship and weren't in love with each other... well... it all seemed like bullshit to Lois.

Leaning her forehead against the glass, Lois took in a deep breath as Chloe and the vampire entered the building, hand in hand. Sure, Lois _was_ going to use this time to enter Chloe's world and integrate herself into it so that she couldn't be left behind again, but there'd been another reason for her being here, and it had been recon. There was no way that she felt vampires could be good matches for her cousin, not when Sam and Dean had done so much-had waited-_they_ were the ones meant for her cousin, and Lois had already decided that she was going to matchmake like _hell_ to make sure that Chloe realized where she needed to be. Vampire or not, obviously there was something still there. Chloe and the Winchesters were still unable to let go of each other, to say goodbye, and that should say something! Should _mean_ something!

Chloe couldn't end up with the vampires who'd killed her! Because the fact that Chloe had sidestepped the issue of her "creation" had confirmed any doubts Lois had had about the fact that one, or both, of the Salvatore brothers had been involved in the occurrence. If the violence below was anything to go by, her money was on the older one who'd entered the house and stormed towards Katherine and Ric and started snarling at them both the second he saw them.

Lois wanted her cousin happy above all else, and she was scared for her. The brunette had lived in fear for a whole year that she'd receive a phone call that someone, somewhere, had found the body of the blonde and she was being asked to go and positively identify it. Both girls had grown up basically abandoned by their living parents and family-members, and had only had each other for company and protection. Lois had a sister she didn't even know what part of the world she was in, the disconnect between the Lane sisters was _that_ bad, but Lois had adopted Chloe as another sister, one that loved her back. Lois was independent, she was fiery and badass and all sorts of mayhem and chaos, but she needed to know that she had someone she could trust and who had her back, and in her whole life there had always only been one person who did that: Chloe, and she'd felt crippled when she'd lost her best friend.

She wasn't going to lose her again. She _wasn't_. And she was going to do all in her power to make sure that Chloe was safe and protected.

If that meant she was going to have to go head to head with vampires, well, _fine_.

Squaring her shoulders, Lois took in a deep breath and headed towards the sounds of the raised voices.

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"You keep forgetting that I'm older than the _both_ of you," Katherine sneered. "I can easily kill you if I want to."

Damon's eyes narrowed. "We don't need or want your help, so you can take your stripper heels and march out the same way you came in."

Out of pure defiance Katherine threw herself onto the sofa, resting said stripper heels on the coffee table. "I don't know why you pretend that you're not happy to see me."

"I'm not pretending." Damon glared.

"Damon, you searched for _centuries_ for a way to get me out of that crypt." Katherine raised an eyebrow. "That sort of love, that sort of _adoration_, doesn't disappear just because you get a new plaything."

Damon's eyes darkened slightly, his skin paling, the change barely noticeable.

Alaric noticed it though, and he knew Damon well enough to know that things were about to get more dangerous, so he stepped in quickly. "Katherine, I didn't convince them to let you stay so you could antagonize everyone."

Damon's gaze turned on him. "Remind me to talk to you about that later, Ric."

Alaric sighed.

Katherine rolled her eyes, far from affected or worried. "He's just acting out right now, once he gets over his anger and frustration he'll see that I'm right."

"Fat chance," Damon sneered before he smirked. "Talking about fat: Katherine... Have you been overfeeding lately?"

Alaric palmed his face.

She hissed and threw a vase at Damin, which he easily evaded and which broke behind him on the wall. "I'm not fat! I'm as perfect as the night you gave your life for me because you loved me so much to you life wasn't worth living if I was dead!"

"You really think mentioning the moment you betrayed your friends, faked your own death, and got Stefan and I _killed_ is _really_ the way to go, smartass?" Damon glared. "You know what? You're right. I searched for you for centuries like some lovesick schoolboy who fantasied about about our lives could be like, but I don't love you anymore Katherine. You're the one living in a fantasy if you think I do."

"You hate me," she eyed him with a smirk. "And you know what they say about love and hate. It involves thin lines."

Damon glared at her.

Alaric narrowed his gaze between them.

"Hello Katherine," a new voice announced, breaking into the tense silence.

Everyone turned to see the newcomers.

Katherine's face lit up. "_Stefan_!" She stood, went to him in the blink of an eye, flung her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply right in front of Chloe. She then pulled away only enough to smirk into his face. "I've missed you."

Stefan merely removed his sire's hands from around his neck and dropped them away from him. "So, what do you get out of helping us?"

"Stefan, I'm hurt," she pouted. "I don't get anything out of this."

"Except that she does." Alaric raised an eyebrow. "She's been on the run from Klaus for hundreds of years and the thought of him having total domination of the world terrifies her. It's the only reason why she's risking her neck and doing this."

Katherine frowned darkly at Alaric. "How do you know all of this?"

"I have my sources." Sources he wasn't ready to reveal as yet.

Lois Lane appeared around the corner, and Ric nearly cursed out loud for straightening slightly, especially since he could tell Damon had picked up on that little tell. This was the _last_ thing the vampire hunter needed at this moment - for his fanboy crush on Chloe's cousin to become Damon's newest source of sadistic pleasure.

"Lois!" Chloe smiled a little warily as her gaze went between the moody vampires in the room and her cousin. "Uhm, uh, I'd like you to meet Damon and Stefan Salvatore."

Damon merely sneered at Lois. The idiot.

Stefan, on the other hand, understood the necessity of making a good first impression. He smiled at Lois and moved towards her, holding his hand out. "I know I can never apologize enough, or make up for keeping Chloe or her situation from you, but I want you to know that we took good care of your cousin while you weren't there."

Alaric could see a mixture of emotions swirling on Lois' face.

Stefan wasn't finished. "Chloe is a part of our family, and I understand that you are still new to the vampire world and don't understand what that means. To us, to our kind, family means everything."

"It means everything to humans as well," Lois whispered, eyes narrowed.

Stefan nodded. "What I am trying to say is that to us, Chloe is very important, and that as her family, you are as well."

"Speak for yourself," Damon snapped.

"I will, then." Stefan didn't look away from Lois, his gaze serious. "I want you to understand that as a fledgling Chloe was dangerous, she was battling her self-control issues and couldn't safely be a part of your life. She kept you away and in the dark-not because her life was more exciting or because she loved or missed you any less-but because of quite the opposite. I can personally tell you that she watched every episode of Paranormal, followed your Twitter account under an alias, and cried _a lot_ because of how much she missed you… Especially whenever the Addams Family and Addams Family Values would come on the television." He blinked. "I never understood the connection, though she mumbled once that it had to do with you."

Lois's gaze went to Chloe quickly before it returned to Stefan, a sheen visible in her eyes as she cleared her throat. "We always were attracted to the macabre, and would pretend we were Thursday and Friday Addams."

"I see." Stefan paused and smiled before he nodded and continued. "I guess this is my very longwinded way of saying that you are a part of Chloe's family, so you are a part of _my_ family as well, and I hope you can come to see me as a part of your family one day."

Chloe reached out and placed her hand on Stefan's arm, a tender expression on her face.

Lois cleared her throat as she finally reached out and put her hand in the one Stefan had held out to her this whole time, the brunette shaking it. "Well, I think we should at least get to know each other."

"Barf." Katherine rolled her eyes and threw herself back onto the sofa.

Lois pulled away and hugged herself.

Ric felt that things might be calming down finally, and he sighed in relief. He knew that he and Damon were going to argue on their own later on for the deception, but at least for now there was enough peace for everyone to talk things over and fill the Salvatores in on the fact that the Originals not only knew about Chloe's existence, but about her abilities, and that they wanted to use them/her(?) for themselves. He could see the annoyance previously felt by the brothers disappear from their faces and be replaced by another emotion.

"I don't see what the big issue is." Damon folded his arms over his chest. "All we need to do is kill these Originals."

Of course this would be his answer to the problem, this was _always_ his answer.

"If Klaus was easy to kill I would've had him killed _500_ _years_ _ago_ and wouldn't have been on the run my _entire_ vampiric life." Katherine shot Damon a disgusted look. "Stakes to the heart don't work on an Original, and scarily enough, I don't know if _any_ normal way of killing will actually work on them. None of the ways I've heard of being tried on them have actually worked."

"You're saying that they're truly Immortal?" Stefan frowned.

Lois shook her head. "Everything has a weakness. Mother natures is just a stealthy bitch who sometimes hides those weaknesses and makes them harder to find than in others, but _everything_ can be killed."

"Rule #3." Ric flinched as soon as those words were out of his mouth.

Chloe's eyes widened. "You never told me you read Chloe and the Dead People."

He rubbed the back of his head and gave her a sheepish smile, feeling less and less cool by the second. "You never brought up your past and I figured you didn't want to talk about it."

"Gees, Ric," Damon snorted. "Next you're going to say you watched that show she did with Dumb and Dumber-Psychic Journals."

Ric lowered his head. "Supernatural Diaries. And I own Season One on DVD."

Damon's lips parted. "Does the magnitude of your betrayal know no limit?"

Lois eyes Ric curiously. "So, what's your favorite episode of SD?"

Ric blinked, though he really didn't have to think about his answer. "Episode 7: Puppet Master."

Chloe shivered. "God, I still have nightmares about that one."

Damon and Stefan, who hadn't watched the reality show, exchanged looks.

"Otherwise known as: Lois Saves Everyone's Butts." Lois' lips twitched at Ric. "You're kind of evil, those puppets were creepy as crap!" Her gaze went to Chloe. "Remember the ones that took over you and Sam, Chlo? The twins? They kept speaking in unison-so freaky! Though Dean probably got the worse deal that night-he still has a scar from where his puppet stuck him with the knife to try and start peeling off his skin."

"Please." Katherine rolled her eyes. "Everyone could see that that was all shaky camera-work and bad CGI." She then snorted at the looks she was receiving. "What? I watch TV too."

"It wasn't CGI," Chloe informed Katherine as she pulled up her pants leg to show a scar by her ankle, one she'd acquired during the filming of that episode. She then turned to Lois. "If you hadn't been immune to the Puppet Mesmer they'd be wearing our skin and that of our cameramen."

"Twas a Crowning Moment of Awesome, if I do say so myself," Lois beamed.

"Did you ever figure out why you were immune to the Puppet Mesmer?" Ric asked, knowing they were horrible off-topic and yet unable to himself himself from asking.

"Nope, but I'm leaning towards my being too strong of mind for it to work on me." Lois smirked.

Katherine stood. "Let's see if that is true with the Compulsion. Take your vervain necklace off."

Chloe glared at her. "Back off."

"Or what?" Katherine stepped closer menacingly.

Damon grabbed Katherine by the back of her shirt and pulled her away from Chloe.

"Really Damon, any excuse to get your hands all over me." Katherine glared at him as she fixed her shirt. "And anyway, getting back to what is _important_, even if you _can_ find a way to kill Klaus, what makes you think it is going to be so easy to do so?"

"It's attitudes like that that has left those Original assholes feeling invincible," Damon declared. "If a stake to the heart doesn't kill him, I'm sure decapitation or setting his ass on fire will."

"You're a fool for believing it will be so easy." Katherine merely sneered at him. "The most likely outcome is that we're probably all going to die."

Alaric, sadly, agreed.

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"CUT!" The called was made. "Take five and then start from the top!"

Dean moved out from under the blaring lights and grabbed a towel to dab at the sweat accumulating on his brow and sip some some water from his bottle as he sat down on his chair, not in the mood for all these reshoots today.

"When I was told that there was going to be a message-boy mission I offered my services out of curiosity," a voice announced behind him.

Dean frowned as he turned to see someone he hadn't expected.

Kol Mikealson, one of the Originals, stood behind him, eyeing the place curiously. "I watch the show, you know. Plots get dropped and forgotten, many creature descriptions are _completely_ off the mark, and the whole show can get a bit cheesy every now and again, but that Lois girl is quite fetching." He turned his gaze on Dean. "Is she on set today by any chance?"

Dean stood to face the Original Vampire. "No."

"Pity." Kol pursed his lips as he stepped forwards and reached into his leather jacket's pocket. "Don't look so testy now, you should know who I am and that we're harmless. We're _cousins_ of your kind."

"You're no cousin of _mine_," Dean narrowed his eyes.

Kol's gaze lowered to Dean's necklace. "Ah, vervain, I see." He shrugged. "Straightforwards then, I like that, no bullshit." He eyed the human. "I'm here as my brother's messenger-boy to hand-deliver invitations for you and your brother to attend a little _soiree_ Niklaus will be throwing, with the explicit understanding that you'll be bringing Chloe Sullivan and Lois Lane as your guests."

Dean sneered. "I wouldn't bring either of them anywhere near you or your brother."

Kol grinned, and it was all teeth as he came near and slipped the invitations onto Dean's seat. "Niklaus just wants to talk, and I think if you just tell the pretty Miss Sullivan about the invitation, you'll find she'll _want_ to come to the party." He turned and walked away as he plopped some earphones into his ears and turned up the volume of his music. "See you at there."

Dean frowned at Kol's back, eyes narrowed.

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**TBC**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: Don't own Smallville/Vampire Diaries/Supernatural**

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"No way in hell am I letting you go to that asshole's party." Damon arranged the bottles of fine, top-grade liquor they'd gone out and bought. "It's obviously a trap and even if _you're_ stupid enough to walk into it I'm not going to let you."

"Don't talk down to her like that." Dean's voice was a growl as he stepped forwards, his eyes narrowed and his body just _trembling_ with anger.

"You." Damon turned around and pointed a bottle of bourbon at the actor. "Be quiet, the grown ups are talking."

"Damon, just, _stop_." Stefan took in a deep breath, obviously unhappy and yet trying to keep the peace as he gazed at one of the invitations. "I doubt they plan on doing whatever they're going to do at this gala. Maybe they really want to just _talk_."

"You can't really think that." Damon turned towards his brother in disgust. "They've got most of the world _Compelled_. They can do whatever the hell they _want_ to do whenever they want to do it. What's stopping them from doing something at that little prom of theirs?"

"With that reasoning, what's stopping them from trying something at any given time?" Chloe asked and raised an eyebrow at the look Damon sent her. "I'm serious. They could come here and, I don't know, burn this place to the ground. But instead they're inviting us to a dance." Her gaze lowered to the invitation in her hands. "I'm going to go."

Damon glared at her. "No."

Chloe rose her greens to meet his blues tranquilly. "Yes."

The vampire's grip on the bottle tightened. "_Fine_. But _I'm_ taking you, not one of the Wonder Brats."

"No." Chloe shook her head. "They specifically said that it had to be Lois, Dean, Sam and I."

The bottle of bourbon broke in Damon's grip, spilling the expensive liquid everywhere. "Because those Original bastards know that Brunette Barbie and the Tweedle Dees are no sort of protection for you! You're a sitting _duck_ if you go there and they are your only backup!"

"I'm fucking _sick_ of you calling us names and putting us down just because we have a pulse." Dean clenched his fists.

Katherine grinned. "Oooh, a dog fight. Haven't seen one in a while." She jumped up onto the counter and clapped her hands together. "Will be fun."

Sam sent her a disgusted look as he shook his head and moved to his brother's side. "Dean, you need to calm down."

"Yeah _Dean_," Damon smirked. "You need to calm down before I remind you who is on the top of the food chain by ripping your spine out of your mouth."

"Damon, _you_ need to stop talking." Chloe narrowed her eyes at him. "_Now_."

A muscle ticked in his cheek as he turned a glare on her. "Who invited them over anyway? They shouldn't be here. They'll bring the paparazzi, and just why not put up big neon signs that say: SHE IS HERE!?" He turned his glare on the brothers. "They're not even a part of this."

"The Originals _made_ them a part of this, where have _you_ been?" Katherine rolled her eyes at Damon. "I'm curious as to whether they've added them just as a ploy to get Chloe to the big ball or whether there is another reason as to why they want them there."

"What other reason would they want two actors?" Damon made a face. "This is Hollywood for crissakes. Actors are a dime a dozen. And it's not like they've even won Oscars or anything for their performances on their crappy little show."

Sam took in a deep breath. "I hate agreeing with him, but I do."

Damon motioned towards him.

Stefan eyed Dean. "You _did_ say that Kol watched the show though, right? And that he mentioned wanting to meet Lois? Despite how far-fetched it might sound-maybe this is a fan-thing."

Ric made a face.

So did Lois. "Maybe I can use that to my advantage? Get some information out of him?"

"I doubt he's a fawning fanboy who'll roll over and show his stomach just because you ask him to nicely." Katherine sneered.

"I didn't think that." Lois raised an eyebrow. "But I can handle guys, and even if he's a vampire he's still a guy. I think I can work this to our advantage if we could go in prepared enough." She clutched her necklace. "What would happen if he ripped this off of me? Could he?"

Katherine nodded. "It would hurt, but yes, I'm sure he could if he really wanted to."

"And then he could use that Compulsion on me." Lois licked her lips. "I don't-I don't like that."

Katherine took in a deep breath. "You see, that's why you have _me_ around. Because I'm the brains of this operation."

Damon sneered. "Yeah right."

Chloe, instead of dismissing Katherine, instead eyed her curiously. "What exactly do you have planned?"

The older vampire gave a sadistic little smile that curved her perfectly glossed lips. "Just how high is your pain threshold?"

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Clark heard it long before he arrived at the abandoned safe-house: the screams. He hurried onwards, the security scan only barely managing to recognize him as: "Boyscout" and allowing him entrance before he pushed open the doors and rushed into the building, following the sounds of the screams to come upon a scene his fevered, terrified and overprotective imaginings hadn't imagined. He'd recognized Chloe's voice, he'd recognized her fear and her pain and had imagined she was being hurt, but he hadn't imagined that she would be the one doing it to herself. And yet as Clark threw the doors open hard enough for them to slam hard against the opposite walls, drawing everyone's attention to him, he found that no one was even remotely close to the girl. In fact, she was kneeling on the cool floor, her skin seeming like it'd been burnt with battery acid, and yet every time she drank from a glass in her hand it got worse and she'd have to pull away and after gulping down would have to scream harder.

Just what in the world was going _on_?

"So, either she's masochistic or she's punishing herself for something," a voice announced to himself drawing his attention to a petite brunette who looked unmoved by the blonde's pain, more intrigued than anything else. "I have a feeling it's the latter though. She's lasted a lot longer than the others did."

"What is going _on_?" Clark glared at her.

Chloe screamed, her skin turning black from the burning from within.

"Stop it already!" Lois hurried over towards her and went to her knees.

"I just have a little more," Chloe whispered to her. "A little more and I've finished."

"A little more and you could hurt yourself, permanently." Lois reached out to brush a strand of blonde hair out of Chloe's face but stopped when she must have realized that touching Chloe would hurt her even more.

Chloe, ever the stubborn one, threw her head back and finished the rest of the liquid, throwing the glass away as the liquid visibly burnt its way down the inside of her neck and body. The girl collapsed on the ground and screamed.

Clark stared at her her in horror and confusion.

The girl next to him looked reluctantly impressed. "She finished the whole damn thing on her first go." The brunette took in a deep breath. "The other two didn't, couldn't. She has either incredible self control or perseverance-and considering how long it took her to get her bloodlust under control, I'm going to go with the latter."

Clark went cold. "Bloodlust?"

The brunette smirked. "Right, you all don't know. _Ooops_."

Clark staggered back a couple of steps as the truth of the matter sunk in. When Oliver had called him to say that Chloe and "some vampires" were using the California safehouse, Clark hadn't needed Oliver to ask him to use his superspeed to go and check up on the blonde and see that she was okay. The revelation that vampires were real still had the JL reeling, and Clark knew that the revelation that Chloe was somehow involved with dealings with them had shaken Oliver greatly, it had Clark as well once Oliver had informed him. And yet now that Clark knew this vital piece of the puzzle _so much_ made sense.

"Hey CK," Dean moved towards him, the human resolutely not looking in Chloe's direction, obviously not able to handle seeing her like that. "I was wondering how long you were going to take to come-though I didn't expect the grand entrance."

"Hey Clark," Sam gave a half-wave from where he stood in the corner, clearly uncomfortable.

"Hi Sam," Clark nodded to him, gaze going to Chloe quickly, before it turned to Dean. "She's a-she's one of-?" He then saw that Dean knew and wasn't surprised, guessed that Dean had known for a long time. The alien took in a deep breath and moved passed Dean to kneel next to Lois, who looked just as shaken up as he did, proving she was still as new to this whole revelation as he was, just as confused and trying to adapt. That made him feel better somehow. Not everyone had been keeping him in the dark. "Hey Chlo."

Chloe looked up at him, her eyes blood-red and those of a vampire, not of his best friend. "_Clark_?"

And yet that voice, that pained, scared voice, that was his Chloe.

Clark reached out and carefully, tenderly, brushed a golden lock out of her face. "You should have told us, Chlo. We would have been there for you. You're still our Chloe, no matter _what_."

Slowly the dark blood receded from her eyes, leaving them the green he remembered, green and filled with unshed tears. A very beat-up and tired Chloe sniffled at him.

Clark moved to hug her.

Chloe pulled away and shook her head as she placed her hand between them on his chest. "N-not n-now." She pushed away and stood, face on pain. "I-I need-."

Clark looked up at her, a little hurt.

"What she doesn't want to say is that she's _hungry_." A male Clark didn't know sauntered through the door, a couple of bags of blood in his hand, one of which he passed to her. "She needs to heal after ingesting all of that vervain, and her body needs blood in order to do so."

Chloe looked away as she buried fangs lightning fast into the bloodbag, a near-purr softly escaping her lips as she lowered to the ground and drank deeply from the bag.

The newcomer bent to his knees and rubbed her head soothingly, his gaze on her, watching as her horrifying burns slowly healed as she ingested the blood. "It would be better if you got it straight from the vein." His gaze rose to Lois. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind."

"_-mon_," Chloe mumbled around the plastic of the bloodbag.

Lois reached out her arm towards the blonde. "I don't mind."

Chloe pushed it away with a shake of her head and sent the guy a glare as she finished her bloodbag and took another from him. "Thanks Lo, but Damon knows that the bloodbags are just _fine_." She buried her fangs into the second bloodbag viciously, desperately, despite her words, her hands shaking.

Damon frowned as he watched her, worry on his face.

Clark finally remembered where he'd seen this guy before. He was one of those two men who'd been in the video piece with Chloe, the one about the bear and the camp massacre. This was one of the vampires.

"..._fan_?" Chloe mumbled around her third bloodbag.

"He's fine, we'd stopped and gotten some tanks of pigs blood before we hit Hollywood just in case we couldn't find good hunting ground so he could stalk Bambi," Damon rolled his eyes. "Stefan's upstairs having his fill on it, but animal's blood isn't half as filling and he'll take longer healing from the vervain with it."

Chloe frowned, a look of worry in her greens as she paused in her own drinking.

"Nothing you can do about him now, it's his own fault he can't have human blood without becoming the Ripper." Damon reached out and squeezed the bloodbag she'd been drinking, forcing her to gulp down the rest of the contents. "Good." The vampire examined her skin carefully before holding out the last two bags of blood to her. "Keep drinking."

She finished the bag and took in a deep breath. "I'm fine, the rest will-."

"Did I ask for you opinion?" He glared as he shoved the other bags of blood forcefully into her hands. "You're the idiot who kept drinking vervain passed her limit and if you want to be strong enough to do this you're going to have to drink enough blood to repair the damage the vervain has done to your body."

"He's right, Chlo," Sam announced softly from Damon's side.

Chloe's greens rose to Sam.

Damon twisted around to raise an eyebrow at Sam before he turned back to face Chloe. "See? Even Mount Rushmore knows this, and he's not a vampire."

Taking in a deep breath, Chloe dunk her fangs into the bloodbag.

Clark watched her burns slowly continue to heal, and wondered how in the world he was going to break this news to the others, or if he should even do so. This was really Chloe's secret, and if there was anyone who understood what it was like to hide one's inhumanity fiercely, it was Clark. Would she _want_ the others in the JL knowing about her new status as one of the undead? Would it make them see her any different? Vampires were still such a new thing for them all, and while they were all sure that they posed no threat (hadn't Klaus assured the world of this?) there were those (like Zatanna) who felt otherwise.

Things had seemed complicated when they'd thought that Chloe was working along with vampires, but now that fact that she _was_ one made things even _more_ complicated. But in the end, she was _still_ their Chloe. Clark knew that from the bottom of his heart.

Thing was, he wasn't sure he could trust the others to come to the same realization.

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So far this whole night had been about Chloe and Katherine wasn't enjoying it. She was used to being under the spotlight and being in the center of attention and the fact that despite everything she was risking and all she was contributing, the fact that she was being overlooked just grated on her nerves. Honestly, she couldn't even see what was so great about the blonde. Sure, she was cute and had spunk and perseverance, but that was about it. Katherine was gorgeous, had _serious_ attitude, and you wanted to talk about perseverance? Try outrunning an Original for 500 years! Katherine was the real deal! But did anyone around here seem to figure that out? No. They were all too busy worrying about Chloe Sullivan. It was getting to the point where she was going to break something.

Life just wasn't _fair_.

Blondie already _had_ two boytoys, and Katherine had been all aboard the Schlean train when it'd been all about the Supernatural Diaries. Chloe needed to stay here with Sam and Dean and leave Stefan and Damon alone, so Katherine could have _her_ boys back again. Because Stefan and Damon were _Katherine's_. She'd made them everything they were, and just because she'd abandoned them for a couple of hundred of years to fend for themselves didn't mean that she had any plans on letting some little fledgling to take her rightful place in their lives. No way in hell.

The vampire gazed down below at the garden where the hunter and the cousin were practicing, the hunter beginning to teach the human cousin vampire hunting skills. Katherine had seen that Stefan had won Lois a little over to his side with his speech earlier on, but with the arrival of the Winchesters afterwards things had fallen into perspective and Lois Lane was definitely on Team Winchester when it came to Chloe Sullivan, as was Katherine Piece. She had a feeling that they would become good friends and allies, as neither woman wanted the blonde to end up with the two male vampires in their midst. She was going to have to approach the human female when she was alone and propose a truce and alliance, one she knew that the brunette would be a fool to reject it.

"So, how much do the Originals know about me?" Chloe's voice caused Katherine to turn and find the blonde behind her. "We know that they don't know I can enter a home uninvited, so that's a plus. What else don't they know?"

"How should I know?" Katherine frowned, annoyed that the younger vampire had managed to sneak up on her. "If you weren't so careless then their spy wouldn't have found or seen you and then we wouldn't be in this mess."

"You see, if we're going to work together I think we should drop that act, at least between the two of us," Chloe announced as she leaned against the wall next to Katherine, arms folded over her chest. "Because we _both_ know that there wasn't any Original spy."

Katherine froze. "Of course there was. How else would they-?"

"Oh come _on_ Katherine, what are the chances of _two_ people stalking us? Really?" There was a sneer on Chloe's face that reminded Katherine of her own. "The only sensible, logical, and thus _probable_ scenario is that _you_ were watching us, _you_ saw how close Stefan and Damon were getting with me and _you got jealous_." Chloe didn't even sound angry as she correctly surmised the situation, her greens on Katherine. "They've both told me about how it was when you were in Mystic Falls with them when they were human, how you wanted to be a threesome coupling with them, and how they were not happy with the thought at all. I'm sure that the fact that _I_ was somehow managing to live out _your_ fantasy life was driving you insane with jealousy and after a while you just couldn't take it anymore. You started to think about what to do to get rid of me, but killing me would not endear you to Stefan or Damon so you'd have to do away with me in a way that wouldn't leave you looking like the guilty party. No, you'd have to do it in a way that you'd look completely innocent and after it was done you could insert yourself back into the picture, a picture you felt you should never have been out of anyway."

Katherine licked her lips, uncomfortable with just how right this girl was so far.

"And then you realized my abilities were uncommon and you thought of how useful that could be: kill two birds with one stone. You could bargain me and my abilities in exchange for pardon for whatever you've done to piss off the equivalent to the Vampire King. _That_ is how the Originals found out about me. _You_ told them in an effort to buy your own freedom so you wouldn't have to keep running away." Chloe pulled a blonde strand out of her face and behind her ear. "You didn't do it in person, you're not stupid, you've survived as long as you have by being overly cautious. You sent a messenger. But not only didn't Klaus forgive you for whatever you've done to royally piss him off, but he took your information and still used it. He probably let you know in his own way that not only would he use me to get what he wanted, but once he had me, that he'd come after you with all those added resources and you'd have no where to run anymore." Chloe shook her head. "That's why you're here 'helping us', because you're really helping yourself, trying desperately to clean up after the mess that _you caused._"

Katherine licked her lips. "So I suppose Damon and Stefan are waiting somewhere with stakes and bad attitudes."

Chloe's lips twitched wryly. "They don't know. They still think some random spy saw me."

Katherine's eyes widened in shock. "Why-?"

"What good would it make to tell them?" Chloe raised an eyebrow before she sighed and leaned her head hard against the wall. "And anyway, we need you, undead." She tilted her head in Katherine's direction. "But I want you to know that if all this goes south, and if the Originals somehow force me to work for them, and if anyone I love gets hurt-especially the people in this building now-I will make you _wish_ you'd kept your jealous trap shut."

Katherine observed the blonde curiously. "I've lived my life in fear, in constant flight, for 500 years. What could you possibly do to me that could be worse than that?"

Chloe merely gave her a small smile as she walked away and left the room.

Katherine frowned as she shook her head of curls. "Impertinent child. Who does she think she is? Talking to _me_ like that?"

And yet she hugged herself tightly and shivered.

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"Is there any update on the Chloe Sullivan story that hit our news panel earlier?" Jason Kennedy from E!News wanted to know with a smile towards the camera. "I heard that there was some juicy Originals news somehow linked to her and Sam and Dean Winchester. How true is that, Catt?"

Catt Sadler gave a little squealing sound as she swung her hands around excitedly. "I'm so happy to say there is definite news on this!" She turned towards the camera as it zoomed onto her grinning face. "Various sources have confirmed that Kol Mikaelson, one of the Originals Vampires we just _can not_ get enough, went by the set of Paranormal to _personally_ deliver invitations to the ultra exclusive party that Niklaus Mikaelson, the head Original, will be throwing in a few nights. These invitations were delivered to Dean Winchester, and witnesses confirm that they were for Dean and Sam and that," she turned to Jason with excitement, her eyes twinkling, "there were also invitations for Lois Lane and Chloe Sullivan as well."

"I'm curious. Does this mean two invitations, as in the girls are their plus ones? Or were there four invitations? And if so… who will they be bringing?" Jason leaned forwards. "Because, remember, Chloe _has_ been linked to other men, and Lois is in an on-again off-again relationship with Sam and Dean's father, Oscar nominated actor John Winchester-who they say is courting another Oscar nomination for his performance in Gregory Magnus. And we can't forget the flurry of women Sam and Dean have been linked to ever since Chloe went off the map."

"True, true," Catt nodded. "But I'm a _huge _fan of Paranormal and have to admit I ship Lois/Dean and Chloe/Sam, so I'm hoping that there are only two tickets. And who knows, now that Chloe's back, maybe the rumors are true. Maybe she will join the show like Lois has, the abandoned Soulmate plot-line will be picked up, and she and Sam will end up together." She winked at the camera. "Writers-make it happen!"

Jason chuckled. "I don't know, I have to admit, these new mystery guys intrigue me. You might be a Schleaner but I think I'll be a true American and go for the underdog team. I'm going to root for what they're calling Team Salvatore." Pictures appeared of on the screen of Chloe with Damon and Stefan, pictures that had been taken from the "First Official Chlalvatore Website". "These pictures just say it all I think."

"We're going to go to war then, Jason Kennedy." Catt teased.

Jason grinned. "Bring it on, Catt Sadler!"

"We've just received a tweet from VannaInTheHouse," Catt announced as she turned to look at the screen behind her, where the picture of a pretty, chubby half-asian girl could be seen next to some words on the screen. "She says: Schlean & Chlalvatore don't have to fight. That's why Schleanvatore exists." Catt blushed and grinned naughtily. "Vanna, you bad girl you."

Jason chuckled. "Vanna, I have a feeling you write fan fiction."

"I'm going to have to Google her!" Catt winked just before the show cut to a commercial for Herbal Essence.

The television was turned off.

"Stefan Salvatore," Nikalus Mikaelson raised an eyebrow as he smirked. "There's a name I haven't thought of in a very long time."

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**TBC**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: Don't own Smallville/Vampire Diaries/Supernatural**

**WARNING: Lemon**

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"I still can't believe you never got the hang of drinking human blood." Katherine eyed Stefan as she made a face at the scent of pig's blood that surrounded him. She couldn't stand the scent, and was admittedly disgusted at the thought that he would stoop so low as to drink from animals like this. He'd always been her favorite, the one she'd loved the most, and to see him like this, well, it didn't sit well with her at all.

Stefan didn't look up from the journal he was writing in. "Go bother someone else."

"There's no one else," she informed him, miffed that he'd speak to her like that, remembering all-too well the days in which he used to worship her.

Stefan put down the pen and closed the book as he looked up at her, eyes narrowed. "What do you mean there's no one else?"

"I _mean _that we're the only ones here." She smirked as she threw herself down on the bed next to him and trailed her fingers against the bedsheets. "The human is out filming scenes with the Winchesters and your little plaything left with her because she had a meeting with her old boss to discuss her old column or something like that."

Stefan frowned. "What about Damon and Ric?"

"The hunter said he had something to do, and your brother left soon after he did." Katherine tilted her head. "I think he's following him." She then smiled at Stefan. "So it's just you and me, all alone, in this big, empty hotel with all these bedrooms."

Stefan stood from the bed and took his journal with him as he moved towards the door. "What do you want, Katherine?"

"If you really have to ask, you're out of practice." She turned onto her back, positioning herself provocatively on his bed, lips curled.

Stefan's expression was unmoved.

She rolled her eyes and sat up. "Oh come _on_ Stefan, I _explained_ why I did what I did all those years ago."

"Yes, you did."

Katherine gave a little growl. "You're punishing me, aren't you?"

"This isn't me punishing you."

"Yes, it is." Katherine pushed off of the bed and onto her feet. "You're hurt that I turned you and then left you for all of those centuries on your own, and I get it Stefan, I _do_. I shouldn't have done that to you or Damon, but I was on the run from Klaus and it wouldn't have been fair on the two of you to take you along with me when I didn't know just how much longer I'd be alive-or-undead. But I wasn't about to let you two find someone else and get married and have children and die of old age having forgotten all about me either. I had to make sure that you would be around when I finally got Klaus off of my back so we could be together, just like we'd always wanted, always planned." Katherine came forwards. "We can be a family, the three of us, _just like we always wanted_."

Stefan frowned. "We never wanted that."

"Then why are you doing _exactly_ that right now?" She couldn't keep the anger from her voice. "You keep saying that you never wanted to have that sort of lifestyle, that it was only _my_ dream, and yet it's exactly what you're doing _right_ now-with _her_!"

"It's different."

"_How_ could it possibly be _different_?" She snapped as she threw her hands in the air, skin paled and veins darkening. "You don't realize it, but you're just substituting what you wanted to have with _me_ and having it with her! You're using her as a substitute for me!"

Stefan stared at her in silence before he did something she hadn't expected, he chuckled.

Katherine stared at him in shock, eyes wide. "_What's so funny?_"

"The mere realization that you think she could be your substitute; it's hilarious." Stefan opened the door and left the room, left her inside of it.

Katherine stared at the empty, open doorway, eyes narrowed, fists clenched and shaking. "_What's that supposed to mean_?"

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She'd signed all kinds of documents to be allowed on the location they were filming at, and there were just so many different documents and such that in the end Chloe had ended up signing everything that'd been shoved under her nose without even reading the fine print. Considering everything, and her past with the writers and producers of Paranormal, Chloe was more than sure that that was going to come back and bite her in the ass some day, but at least it gave her access to the set now that she'd finished meeting with Martha and Perry. Chloe's boss and his wife (Senator Kent-White) had had a very long meeting with her that had been half reunion (Martha) and half work-related (Perry). Apparently there was a lot of pressure on him from a lot of different fronts and Chloe just disappearing the way she had hadn't just hurt her friends, she'd hurt business. There was a lot she was going to have to do, and damage control was one of them.

Perry didn't know she was a vampire and he didn't need to do, honestly, she didn't think he'd want to know. He understood her need to privacy and keeping certain aspects out of the public eye, but he was her boss and in his own words, she'd had enough time off and it was time she went back to work, especially with all the supernatural things going on giving credibility to her profession, credibility that hadn't been there when she'd taken the sabbatical. And he wanted her to start work at the Originals Ball, as the big shindig was being called, scoring some sort of interview with Niklaus Mikaelson. Chloe couldn't figure out how to work all this out considering she was trying to stay as far away from that Original as possible.

The blonde watched Sam, Dean and Lois filming a scene where they were staking out the creature of the week, a small smile on her face until a vibrating in her pocket caught her attention and she pulled out her phone, a wary expression on her face when she saw the number was blocked. She sent one last look towards the trio and moved away from the filming towards the trailers before answering. "Who is this?"

"Hello, Chloe."

Chloe flinched, her eyes widening. "Bruce." The blonde looked around before she hurried towards a more deserted section. "How did you-?"

"Oliver gave me the number once he finally told me that you were in the California safehouse, with _vampires_."

She lowered her head and sighed. "So I take it you somehow were wearing vervain during the transmission and don't believe they're harmless?"

"Zatanna has equipped the JL with vervain jewelry to keep us from being Compelled in the future," he hedged the question. "From that question I take it _you_ are not Compelled either."

"No."

There was silence, and then: "We have found secret organizations buying up large fields of vervain, and any seeds of them, and destroying them in secret."

Chloe's eyes widened in shock. "They're making sure that people can't protect themselves from the Compulsion."

"They can't destroy the plant completely though. There will always be someone growing them in secret."

And that was why they'd need Chloe.

The blonde frowned as she licked her lips. "Why are you telling me this and not telling me off like Oliver?"

"I understand better than anyone the need to disappear when one feels over their heads," he sighed heavily. "I did the same when I was younger and had a lot of decisions to make about the direction my life was going to take." He paused. "Are you happy now, Chloe?"

Her lips curled in a small smile. "Happy enough." She cradled the phone. "Thank you for understanding, Bruce. No one else has." She paused. "Are _you_ happy?"

There was a pause and he let a sigh. "Happy enough."

She smiled a little brighter. "That's all we can ask for, right?"

"I agree." Bruce took in a deep breath. "One day we need to have dinner to catch up."

"We do." She licked her lips. "I would like that a lot."

"I must go, Helena is motioning to me." He gave a little sigh. "It was good hearing your voice."

Her smile grew tender. "And yours, Bruce." She licked her lips. "I'm sorry for how I cowardly I did things. You both deserved for me to say goodbye and to explain why I was doing what I was doing."

"Yes," he agreed without reproach, unlike Oliver. "But what is done is done, and what is important is the present."

This is why Bruce had always been so important to her. "Thank you, Bruce." She couldn't keep the tremor from her voice, his forgiveness meaning so much to her she couldn't put it into words. "_Thank you_."

"Talk to you later, Chloe." And with that he hung up.

The blonde smiled as she hung up and wiped at her teary eyes with the back up her hand. She'd been so terrified to talk to Oliver and Bruce for so long, and while it'd been kinda painful to do so with Oliver, it'd been like lifting a burden off of her to do so with Bruce. Then again, Oliver had always been the impulsive, emotional and temperamental one, whereas Bruce was the mature, reserved, thoughtful one. She should have known that talking to him would have been different. This short conversation had given her some closure that she'd needed for a very long time now, and Chloe smiled softly at the thought that maybe now she could truly begin healing.

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Ric took a sip of his drink as he gazed at the screen, which was predictably turned onto E!, and was showing a piece on the Originals, focusing on Rebekah Mikaelson, whom everyone was referring to as the "lone beauty in a sea of handsome faces" amongst her family. The program featured the many different fanclubs dedicated to "The Princess of the Night" and there were interviews with the people on the street as to what they thought about the vampires, focusing though on what they thought about Rebekah Mikaelson in particular. Her fashion was a topic that came up, her "perfect hair" and "incredible fashion statement pieces" brought up in pictures as Robbie Laughlin took pictures of her "best looks" and asked people on the street which ones they preferred and why.

The hunter watched the television and couldn't believe that the world now knew about vampires, and all they cared about was what they were wearing. He knew that the Compulsion was to blame for part of it, but he knew it wasn't to blame for _all_ of it. Deep down inside of him he believed that even if the Originals hadn't Compelled most of the world, half of them would be acting this way still.

"_I disagree with you_," Robbie Laughlin shook his head as he lifted a picture with Rebekah Mikaelson in an emerald green gown. "_Personally_, _I think this one is her best look. With her hair up and the emeralds in her golden locks she lives up to the title of Princess of the Night_."

"Oh god," a voice groaned as someone slid onto the stool next to Ric. "This is all going to go to her head and make it bigger than it already is."

Ric raised an eyebrow as he sent a sideways glance towards his companion. "You're late."

She smirked. "It's a lady's prerogative to be late."

Ric merely finished his drink and motioned to the bartender for another one.

"Bourbon, straight." She smiled at the bartender before she turned to Ric. "So, I take it everything is going according to plan?"

"Damon hasn't _seriously_ tried to kill Katherine, no," Ric sighed. "But the tension in the house is mounting. Chloe's cousin is living with us too, which is something I hadn't planned on. I don't like the idea of her and Katherine under the same roof. I can't trust that vampire not to do something while we're sleeping." He frowned. "It also means that I don't have as much free time as I anticipated because Chloe asked me to train Lois and, given everything, I think it makes perfect sense."

"And it has nothing to do with the fact that you're attracted to her."

"_Sage_."

The redhead smirked. "Your musky scent spiked when you spoke about her, and I have a superior ability to smell things, it's really not my fault." She smiled at the bartender when he passed her her cup, the flirty redhead turning her attention back on Ric. "I don't know whether to agree with you that she's extremely attractive, or be jealous that she's taking your attention away from me."

Ric ignored Sage's usual flirtations, knowing that she was just trying to make him uneasy. He merely nodded his thanks to the bartender as he recieved his next drink and turned towards the vampire. "So, what news to do you have for me?"

"You know, I'm starting to feel like a booty call." Sage trailed her finger around the mouth of her cup. "You only call me when you want something from me and not because you just want to talk and enjoy my company."

Ric raised an eyebrow. "We're both getting something from this Sage, don't act as if this is onesided."

"You're no fun, Ricky." She rolled her eyes with a sigh. "_Fine_." Sage took a sip of the bourbon as she considered him silently and gulped the liquid down. "You can't kill them."

"Look, I get that you and Finn had this past-."

"No." Sage shook her head. "It's more than that." She licked her lips. "I mean, if you want your friends to live, you _can't_ kill them."

Ric frowned as he leaned forwards. "Explain."

True unease covered her expression as she took in a deep breath as moved forwards as well. "I don't know _how_ this can be done, Ric, but apparently it _can_ be done, but at a horrible price. If an Original dies, so does every single vampire of his or her bloodline." Her gaze was as serious as her voice hissed. "You kill one of them, and you could be condemning your friends to death."

Ric froze in horror before he pulled away and cursed. "_Damn it_." He ran his hand over his face before he turned to her. "How sure are you that this is accurate information?"

"Very." She downed the whole glass without flinching, expression sour. "And I paid a great price to get you that information so it's going to cost you, handsome."

Ric frowned when he heard the nearly inaudible waver in her voice. "Are you okay?" He leaned over and rested his hand on her arm, feeling the slight shiver there. "What happened?"

She gave him a smirk, but the usual twinkle in her eyes was completely gone, something missing, horribly dimmed. "Aw Ricky, don't pretend you actually care."

His frown grew. "_What did you do_?"

Sage's smirk melted as she looked away. "It's none of your business, Alaric."

He hated it when she called him Ricky, but it surprised him how uneasy his first name on her lips made him. The hunter tightened his grip on her arm. "Talk to me."

Sage's gaze lowered to his hold on her arm and she licked her lips before her gaze rose to his, eyebrows nearly touching in silent question.

"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" A most unexpected and unwanted voice snarked. "Ric, I know Isobel went all Dead Chick on you, but since when did it become a fetish?"

Ric groaned as he let go of Sage's arm and turned to face Damon Salvatore, the vampire who (he wasn't sure _why_) was his best friend. "Hello, Damon."

Sage raised an eyebrow. "Long time no see."

"Sage," Damon smirked. "How's unlife been treating you?"

"Can't complain." She slipped off of the stool and turned to Alaric. "See you later, handsome." With that she sauntered away.

Ric watched her go, uneasy with how they'd left things.

Damon sat on the stool Sage had vacated and ordered something before he turned to Alaric. "So, you want to cut the bullshit and tell me what's really going on?"

Alaric turned to face Damon, sighed, and ordered another drink.

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"What's that supposed to mean?"

Stefan sighed as he looked up from the glass of scotch in his hand. "I really don't have the energy to play games with you right now."

Katherine's face was pinched in displeasure as she entered the room, eyes narrowed and movement determined as she moved so that she stood in front of where he sat, hip jutted out to the side. "I don't really care. I think I deserve a straight answer."

Stefan was going to hurt Damon for leaving him alone with Katherine. "What are you talking about?"

Something flashed in her eyes. "What is so funny about the thought that she's my substitute? Especially when it's obviously the truth?"

Stefan raised an eyebrow as he tilted his head to the side. "How do you figure that?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Don't play stupid, Stefan, it's more than obvious." Katherine licked her lips. "Despite how much you and Damon insist that the life I'd wanted to live with you and Damon was wrong, immoral even, and a lifestyle neither of you were remotely interested in, here you are living it with _her_. Obviously it was like I envisioned it: once your human inhibitions were removed and out of the way you were able to see what an amazing team we would have made, and you substituted the dream-life _we_ could've had, and when I say substituted I mean instead of _me_ you used _her_."

Stefan eyed the liquid in his glass thoughtfully.

"I groomed you and Damon both for this life-_with me_." Katherine moved closer. "She's just reaping the benefits. You _think_ you want her, but you don't, not really."

"Is that so?" He raised his gaze from the liquid to her face.

"Yes." Katherine moved towards him, her hips swaying seductively as she straddled his lap. "_Stefan_, deep down inside you knew I was alive and that was why you chose to start building the sort of life you knew I wanted, getting used to the sort of lifestyle _you knew_ I needed, with someone _you knew_ wasn't committed _to you_."

It took all he had in him to keep from flinching at that, those words hitting him harder than he would like.

Katherine cupped his face as she stared deep within his eyes. "Deep down inside, both you and Damon know that what you and that blonde toy of yours have isn't going to last. It's doomed to fail; she's going to leave you for Dean and Sam."

Stefan tightened his fists as he stared up at Katherine.

"You _know_ that I'm telling the truth." She smiled down at him. "You _know_ in the end the both of you are _mine, _you always were. No matter how much time we're apart, we'll always end up together because we're meant to be." She smirked. "And she's going to end up with the Winchesters, because if her being a vampire hasn't phased them then they're not going to give her up, and I doubt she's going to give them up either. It's fate, and there's _nothing_ you can do to fight fate."

Stefan didn't move as Katherine reached down and pressed her lips to his in a deep kiss.

Katherine moaned softly as she kissed Stefan, clutching at the front of his shirt as she did so. She curled into him, the vampire giving a buck or two against his lap before she suddenly went still and pulled away. Her face was confused as she stared into his. "_Stefan_?"

Stefan sighed as he stared into her face. "Yes, Katherine?"

She looked down at his lap and then back up at his face, the confusion obvious and growing. "What's wrong?"

His only answer was to push the shocked brunette off on him, the vampire sick at his stomach as he finished his drink and put the drink down on the side table as he stood. "Thank you, Katherine."

From where she gathered herself on the sofa, she narrowed her eyes on him warily. "For _what_?"

"If you hadn't _groomed_ Damon and I for this life, I wouldn't be to do what I have to do." Stefan clenched his fists, still unhappy and yet determined.

With that he wiped his mouth and turned and walked away, leaving Katherine alone in the living room.

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"It's time for **So True/So False**!" Giuliana announced as she turned to the screen as video images appeared. "Jason, has Bill Paxton dissed Taylor Swift for being such a serial dater? This is **So False**! The actor actually said more girls should follow in the singer's footsteps and not settle down so quickly with one boy!"

"That's interesting," Jason blinked, genuinely appearing curious at the revelation as the video changed. "Next on **So True/So False**-and this one should be really interesting for you Giuliana-is there a new leading lady in John Winchester's life?"

Giuliana gasped. "Say it isn't so!"

Jason made a face. "This is actually **So True**. We have video-graphic evidence of John Winchester leaving the apartment at three in the morning of none other than Ruby DeMonique, who everyone will know very well as having played the succubus Sapphire on Paranormal." The video appeared, showing John and Ruby kissing in the darkness of the night, along with some very heavy petting, before he finally entered his car and drove away. "It seems like things with his fellow co-star and on-again-off-again girlfriend Lois Lane are definitely _off_ again."

Giuliana raised an eyebrow, a hand on her hip as she tapped a foot on the ground. "Or they _will_ be once she sees this footage."

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"You'd never think that acting would be this tiring," Lois groaned as they waited at the red light. "But sometimes I think it's more tiring than hunting."

"I think you're good at it." Chloe leaned against the seat and turned towards her cousin with a small smile. "You seem like a natural."

A small smile touched Lois' face. "Thanks, but to be honest the only reason I did it was to keep myself from going insane while you were gone. I had too much time on my hands and I no idea whether you were alive or dead-." She turned to Chloe. "I know you'd said that if you wanted to remain hidden you should hide forever, but I didn't know if you were hiding or dead. It was killing me and I needed something to keep me busy or I'd do something stupid."

Chloe frowned as she gazed at her cousin. "I'm a seriously _sucky_ person."

Lois laughed as she shook her head. "I wouldn't say that _now_, but I _did_ curse you more than once during the time you were gone." The light changed to green and she pressed on the gas. "By the way, I should warn you, I overheard some of the writers talking about how it'd help the ratings if you guest-starred in a couple of episodes."

Chloe frowned. "Episodes? As in _plural_?"

"Yup." Lois nodded. "From the little I managed to overhear, they had a mini-arc that they felt your character would be perfect for, and they wanted to talk to you about guest starring for those episodes. I figured I should give you fair-warning because knowing them they're going to spring this on you when you least expect it."

Chloe frowned. "I'm not an actress, I don't get why they'd want me for multiple episodes. Why not just one episode to clarify that the demon had just been messing with Sam and Dean's character's when he mentioned mine was the soulmate of one of them?"

"You could always counter-pitch that to them," Lois offered.

"True." Chloe made a face. She was silent and deep in thought the rest of the way to the safehouse, and was only dragged out of her thoughts when she noticed Stefan sitting on the front steps, a stormy expression on his face. "Something must've happened."

Lois waited as the security system let them in before driving inside. "Wonder what."

As soon as the car parked, Chloe slipped out, Stefan by her door and pressing her to the metal in a deep kiss. The blonde whimpered as her hands went to his hair, not sure what had happened or what was going on, but understanding that he needed her, needed comfort, and was more than willing to give it to him.

"I'll, uh, be inside," Lois cleared her throat as she went towards the front door.

Stefan pulled away enough to breath out: "Katherine is out so you have the place all to yourself."

"Cool!" Lois grinned, in a much better mood as she hurried to get as far away from them as possible.

Chloe ran her fingers through Stefan's hair, her fingertips massaging his scalp as she brought his forehead to hers. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he breathed as he closed his eyes and brought his hands to her her hips. "Nothing at all." Stefan pressed his lips to her in soft kisses before he once more rested his forehead against hers. "I just don't want to be left alone with her ever again."

"Sorry." Chloe tilted her head to press peppered kisses up his jaw. "Sounds like you've had a rough day."

"It's getting better," he tilted his head to give her better access.

Chloe chuckled as she curled her fingers through the loops in his pants and brought him closer to her as her kisses turned to nibbles. "We haven't had time for each other since we've come here, have we?"

"Nope, we haven't," he agreed, his hands going from her hips to under her shirt, his calloused hands rough yet tender against her skin. "But I didn't want to complain. That's Damon's job."

She snorted in amusement. "Yes, it is." She nipped at his earlobe playfully. "But you can complain sometimes too, you know. This can't be easy for you, and Damon can't be the only one getting spoiled all the time."

He chuckled darkly as he lifted Chloe so that she was sitting on top of the car's hood. "Don't let him hear that."

Chloe smiled and parted her thighs as Stefan stepped between them. "I think he knows-."

Stefan's hands pushed her skirt high up her thighs as his lips attacked her neck.

Chloe's eyes closed as her core throbbed when she heard the soft sound of a zipper lowering. "_Stefan_."

"I had a _really_ rough day," Stefan whispered harshly as, with a quick series of movements, he freed himself, pulled her underwear to the side, and then buried himself deep inside of her with a thrust of his hips.

A cry escaped her lips as the blonde arched her back, leaning hard on her elbows as he kept himself hilt-deep inside of her.

The male vampire made a small, circular motion with his hips and then hissed, his eyes darkening, veins appearing down his paling face as his features sharpened in desire. "I've missed this-being like this with you. It's been _too long_."

Chloe's eyes fluttered open, a small, teasing smile playing on her lips as she rolled her hips into his as she curled her legs around his waist, pulling him in deeper, relishing his look of choked delight. "It's only been a couple of days."

Stefan's only answer was to pull his shirt off of his head and to throw it to the ground as he gave her a deliberately rough thrust.

Chloe whimpered in pleasure, her nails digging into the car's paint job (Lois was going to _kill_ them), the blonde staring up at her sire through her eyelashes, that teasing smile growing as she began to slowly unbutton her shirt.

His gaze followed the action hungrily, his cock throbbing within her as he began to move, momentarily distracting her with the sensation. "Don't stop."

Reminded of what she'd been doing, Chloe's smile returned and she chuckled. "Yes sir." The blonde continued her slow unbuttoning, a cry escaping her lips when he hit something inside of her that had electricity racing throughout her body and her back arching, and then Stefan's hands were joining hers and his mouth descending on her lace bra. "_Stefan_!"

He chuckled, the feeling reverberating around her mound as he sucked on the flesh, nibbling as he shifted his body and trailed his hand up hers to bury his fingers in her hair. His teeth teased her nipple through the wet material of her thin bra as his fingers clenched a handful of her golden locks, the vampire thrusting slowly and deeply into his girl.

"_That feels so good_." Chloe's body was a mess of tingles as her hands went to his head, her fingertips messaging his scalp encouragingly, the girl arching her back and offering more of her breast to his mouth as she rolled her hips into his.

Stefan groaned. He seemed to lose himself in his thrusts, his desire. His fangs descended and pierced through the lace of her bra, and skin. Blood flowed upwards and filled his mouth as his thrusts began to grow fiercer.

Chloe threw her head back and bit down on her bottom lip, a choked groan stuck in her throat as the pleasure doubled inside her. Her grip around Stefan's hips tightened as her hips bucked instinctively, desperately, and she pulled his head harder to her breast, urging him to continue suckling from her as she grew wetter and wetter from his ministrations. "_Yessss…. Stefan! That feels-! More! Please!_"

Stefan freed his fangs from her skin and lifted his head, her blood running down his chin, an odd, possessive look on his face as he covered her body with his completely and kissed her hard. His cock stilled within her torturously as her sire kissed her deeply, hungrily, fully, almost as if he'd never kissed her before. That cock twitched and throbbed deep inside of her, letting Chloe know just how desperately he wanted to move within her, to fuck deep inside of her, and the knowledge made it all the more amazing and torturous. She didn't understand what was going on with Stefan, or why this moment with him was so different than usual (as he was usually a bed and candlelight sort of guy) but she was loving it so much she wasn't going to ruin anything by asking.

Instead, Chloe cried into his mouth, fighting the urge to beg for him to move, to continue thrusting deep into her. She kissed back, gave just as good as he was giving, and fought every impulse which screamed for her to roll her hips and fuck him if he wouldn't fuck her. It was hard though, especially when every couple of seconds his cock would twitch inside of her with desire and send chills of wanton lust throughout her whole body that made her literally _whimper_ into Stefan's mouth. It got to the point where she was so aware of his cock inside of her, of its length and its girth, of every bit of it, its feel, _everything_, it was driving her to insanity. She could cry.

She'd always said Damon was the sadist, but tonight she was beginning to reconsider that assumption because if her sire didn't start moving soon, if she didn't feel that cock do more than twitch and throb tauntingly within her, she might just _die_.

Almost as if he could read her thoughts, or maybe because he was on the brink himself, Stefan growled and began moving once more within her. Despite the tension in his arms, in the desperation in his kiss, in the way he obviously just wanted to bury himself repeatedly inside of her and let go-her sire controlled himself and tortured them both by going horribly slow.

Her body, which had already been overly-sensitive, was on fire, her every nerve-end tingling viciously.

Chloe ran her fingernails harshly down Stefan's back, drawing blood on purpose, sharp pleasure coiling tight in the pit of her stomach at an alarmingly rapid rate given how slowly torturous his thrusts were.

In response Stefan groaned and arched his back, forcing his cock deeper inside of her and hitting something inside of her that caused a white heat to explode in her head.

The blonde saw nothing but white, her mind going blank as that coil snapped inside of her, pleasure exploding violently outwards. She screamed and dug her nails harder into Stefan's back as she leaned her head hard against the cool metal of the car hood.

Stefan groaned a curse, his thrusts finally growing urgent and fast as she tightened around him in her orgasm, the vampire's hips meeting hers loudly over and over until he finally stiffened and climaxed. Her sire gazed down at her, his faced twisted in pleasure, before he collapsed on top of her, resting his weight on his elbows, remaining lodged deep within her.

Chloe smiled softly as she pressed a kiss to his forehead.

Stefan closed his eyes, a contented expression on his face as he rested his cheek against her breast.

The blonde took in a deep breath as she caressed his hair and closed her eyes.

"I don't want to lose you."

Chloe's eyes flew open in surprise. "What in the world happened to you today?"

Stefan remained lying on her, head over her heart. "I don't particularly like sharing you with Damon."

That was news to her considering both vampires had always seemed quite happy with the arrangement.

"But I do it because you make Damon a better person... vampire… _being_." Stefan gave another sigh as his hand rose to cup her breast. "And to be honest, I missed my brother." He gave a dark little chuckle. "All these centuries as vampires we have never been able to friends, like we were as humans. The only time we have been able to do so has been since we met you." Stefan began to massage her lace-covered breast softly, thumb rolling over her nipple. "He was once my best friend, and while I know that we'll never be what we once were, I feel like I can rely on him now." There was a pause. "I haven't been able to truly say that, and feel that, with confidence in too many centuries to count."

Chloe listened intently to his words, knowing he was telling her something important, but the feeling of him caressing her breast was sending electric chills down her body.

"It's why I can't complain, because I suppose I love and want my brother in my life more than I want you to be exclusively mine and lose him completely." Stefan sounded guilty. "What does that say about me?"

Chloe continued to caress Stefan's hair soothingly, a little confused. "That you value family above all else, and that's something I agree with." She licked her lips. "I'm just a little confused why you think that if you and I became exclusive, that you'd lose Damon." She gave a little grin. "Damon's the biggest playboy in the book. I mean, his picture's probably under the definition of "Casanova" in the Oxford Dictionary. I doubt he'd really mind."

Stefan chuckled darkly and pressed a kiss to her heart. "Word of advice: Damon cares about you a lot more than you think he does." Stefan finally shifted enough so that he was looking at Chloe in the face. "And if he thinks for one minute that the Winchesters are a real threat to his relationship with you, he'll kill them."

Chloe frowned, a chill racing down her back. "_What_?"

"For their own safety, it's best you assure him they aren't." There was something very odd with Stefan tonight as he stared at her, his hips giving an unexpected thrust deep inside of her, stealing her breath away. "As soon as you can reassure him that he's not going to lose you to the Winchesters, _or to anyone else_, he'll calm down and won't do something stupid."

Chloe stared up at Stefan's face before she suddenly realizing something and grabbed him by his neck. In a split second the vampires were in a reversed position, Stefan lying on his back on the hood of the car, and Chloe straddling him, eyes narrowed, expression disturbed. "This has nothing to do with _Damon_, Stef."

Stefan opened his mouth and tried to sit up.

Chloe pushed him back down. "This has to do with _you _and whatever the hell happened between you and Katherine today." She stared down at him thoughtfully as she gave a slow buck of her hips, moving their still combined bodies, watching the pleasure twist his face. "What did she do to you, Stef? What did she say to mess you up inside like this?"

"_Nothing_." Stefan's hands went to her hips.

The blonde slapped them away. "What…" Chloe slowly pushed up and down on her knees, rising and lowering onto his hard cock. "…did she say…" She trailed a nail down Stefan's abs towards their combined bodies, feeling his muscles spasm under her touch. "…to you?"

Stefan flung his head back and groaned, clenching his hands at his side as he thrust his hips up into her. "It doesn't matter!"

Chloe closed her eyes, losing herself to the sensation against her better judgement, the pleasure of him sliding in and out of her so furiously momentarily causing her to forget why she was doing this.

"She was _wrong_." Stefan's voice was harsh, angry, unlike _Stefan_.

Chloe opened her eyes and stared down at him, her eyes wide as she saw his vampiric face, the sight reminding her all-too much of the day he'd killed her. "_Stefan_?"

Something in her voice must have reached him in whatever dark placed his mind had trapped him, because Stefan, _her_ Stefan, reappeared, his vampiric face slowly disappearing into shame. "Chloe, I-I'm sor-."

The blonde silenced him by leaning down and kissing him deeply, shifting her body so that she was draped over him, their bodies still connected as she twisted her hips, urging him to continue.

Stefan leaned up on his elbow as the fingers of his free hand dove into her hair, cupping the back of her head as he kissed her deeply. He angled his hips so that when he thrusted up into her, he hit her in that place where he knew she saw stars.

"_Stefan_…" she whispered against his lips, voice a groan. "_You could __**never**__ lose me_." Chloe gasped as he thrusted deeper within her. "_Stop worrying that I'll run away from you-I won't. I didn't run away when I came here, I promise._"

"_I'm your sire, Chloe_." Stefan's voice shook as he groaned, his grip on her hard, his lips hungry on hers. "_Never thought I'd pull that card-but I might_."

She didn't understand what he meant, but the pleasure was too great, it was clouding her reason, and she kissed him hard, silencing any further words as she came once more.

Stefan kissed her deeply, thrusting up into her, riding her through her climax before he groaned, gave a couple of desperate thrusts, buried himself to the hilt, and shot deep within her womb.

The vampires collapsed on the car, kissing each other softly as they rode through the haze of pleasure together.

Chloe smiled as she felt him twitching inside of her. "We're going to have to buy Lois a new car."

Stefan leaned his head back and laughed. "Yeah-I hadn't thought of that, but we probably _are_ going to have to do that."

The blonde stared hungrily at Stefan's bottom lip before she reached out and nibbled on it as she rocked her hips against his, feeling him already growing from half-mast to full. "Well, since we're getting her a new car…"

Stefan merely grinned before he reached up and pulled the laughing girl down for yet another kiss.

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**TBC**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: Don't own Smallville/Vampire Diaries/Supernatural**

**MERRY CHRISTMAS!**

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Despite how many times Lois swore she didn't care _who_ John "and his slutty dick" slept around with, the near maniacal way she threw herself into Ric's vampire hunter training once the news of John's hookup with Ruby DeMonique broke, spoke otherwise. Chloe gave her cousin the space she needed though, didn't push or pry, and supported her in this new endeavor of hers. Plus, the ball was only two days away, things in the hotel were increasingly tense, especially with Katherine, and since the breakup and with everything happening Dean and Sam had been stopping by more and more, which hadn't made Damon or Stefan any happier. So all in all, things were tense with a capital T. At least Damon and Ric seemed to have patched up their differences and were buddies again, which was a good thing. Damon needed Ric as his one and only friend in the world, he couldn't risk losing that friendship and Chloe was relieved that they were thick as thieves once more.

Katherine was in a sulk, especially concerning Stefan. She was ignoring him, and when she wasn't ignoring him she observed him and visibly pouted, obviously not happy with something. It all stemmed from that "rough day" that had ended in great car-hood sex for Chloe, and the blonde couldn't help but wonder exactly what had happened between Katherine and Stefan for the brunette vampire to be this way with her "favorite".

The pain of the vervain dulled Chloe's thoughts though, the blonde biting back the scream as she finally finished the glass and put it down. She was getting through it quicker now, and while it wasn't less painful she found the pain more tolerable the more she had to endure it. Maybe she was building a higher tolerance to the pain, maybe she was just too scared at the thought of being Compelled by the Originals. All she knew was that every day drinking vervain was a little easier.

"That's insane," Sam sighed as he knelt and passed her a bloodbag.

"What's insane is you passing me blood to drink," she mumbled as she took the bloodbag from him and sunk her fangs deep within the plastic greedily, desperate to soothe the pain of the darkened burns over her skin.

Everyone was out at the moment except for her and the boys.

Lois was with Ric and Stefan, the vampire having agreed to help the hunter test the girl on some of the things she'd trained so far.

Katherine and Damon were both out, separately, doing god knew what.

Dean and Sam had arrived half an hour after the others left and approximately ten minutes after Chloe started her vervain drinking, the blonde having purposely waited to be alone to do this.

"Why would you wait until everyone's gone?" Dean wanted to know as he paced the floor. "What if you got hurt?"

"This isn't enough vervain to really hurt me," she promised. "It's just enough to make sure that it's saturating my system, which is what I need for the ball."

"This is torture." Dean turned to face her, clearly unhappy.

"I'm _fine_." She tried for a smile but stopped when she realized it would be bloody.

Sam merely passed her the other bloodbag and took the empty one from her hand.

Chloe mutely sunk her fangs into the plastic bag and drank.

Dean shook his head. "So it's been decided that you'll be Sam's date and Lois will be mine."

Chloe nodded in acceptance.

He frowned. "You could have questioned it a bit."

She gulped down the blood and looked between them. "Okay then, why?"

Dean huffed. "Our manager. He said the fans will love it."

Chloe tilted her head.

"Remember I said that there are Lois/John and Lois/Dean fans?" Sam asked. "Well, now that dad went and did what he did, the balance has tipped and the fans seem to have all jumped ship to Lois/Dean because they say that John obviously doesn't love her like Dean does to two-time her with a _demon_."

Chloe blinked. "They _do_ realize that you're not the characters you play on Paranormal, right?"

"I've stopped asking myself that question because I think I'm not going to like the answer." Dean made a face as he folded his arms over his chest.

Chloe's lips twitched in wry amusement.

"Dean and I are going to spring for the dresses," Sam suddenly cleared his throat as he changed the subject drastically. "I can already see you about to argue with us, but stop. We're doing this for Lois."

Chloe closed her mouth immediately.

"With all she's going through, Dean and I figured that a shopping trip with you to get some gowns would be exactly what she'd need." Sam was the picture of discomfort. "So just let us pay for it and help that way."

Chloe looked between the two guys, her heart clenching tightly. "You've really taken care of her while I've been gone, haven't you?"

"'Course," Dean scoffed as he looked away.

Chloe smiled and threw her arms around Sam, hugging him tightly despite the empty bag of blood still in her hand and the burns still on her body. "Thank you." She pressed a soft kiss to his cheek and rose to hug Dean, whose discomfort merely grew. The blonde breathed in Dean's scent as her eyes slipped closed and she pressed a soft kiss to his cheek as well before she pulled away and smiled at the brothers. "You guys are the best."

"I wouldn't-." Sam began.

"Yeah, we are." Dean smirked.

Sam rolled his eyes.

Chloe chuckled in amusement. "So, I'm going to be able to see Dean's ballroom dancing lessons in action, huh?"

Dean deflated and groaned as he covered his face in embarrassment. "Sam, you and I are going to talk."

Sam grinned as he pushed up from the ground and threw Chloe the last bag of blood. "Oh come on, think of how much you'll be able to show off!"

"I agree, Dean Wesson-Smith looked like a pro in The Last Waltz," Chloe assured Dean, a teasing smile playing on her lips. "I was seriously impressed. Who _knew_ that under that gruff exterior was a verifiable _twinkletoes_?"

"Twinkle-?" Horror covered his face as Dean groaned harder. "Someone, shoot me."

Chloe chuckled.

Sam did as well before he cleared his throat and turned those blue/green gaze towards her. "I know that Damon has been telling us to stay away because the paparazzi or someone working for the Originals can follow us and find out about this place, but-."

Chloe interrupted him with a shake of her head. "Don't worry."

Sam frowned. "We don't want to selfishly put you in danger."

"Lois works with you and lives with us," Chloe reminded. "His argument is moot considering that it would be much easier for someone to just follow her."

Sam thought about it and nodded slowly.

"Thank you for worrying, though." She took in a deep breath. "I truly believe we don't have anything to worry about Originals-wise until this ball at least." The blonde thought for a moment. "Whatever they are planning, I really think it has to do with that ball."

Sam frowned as he eyed her. "You think they're planning on doing something there?"

"I don't know, according to Dean, Kol says they just want to _talk_, but they could do that anytime anywhere, why there and then?" Chloe hugged herself. "It seems very suspicious to me."

Dean opened his mouth to say something when his phone rang. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the Samsung Galaxy, narrowing his eyes when he saw who it was, and brought it to his ear as he answered. "Yeah? I'm busy." His frown grew. "Okay. I'll see you in a couple of minutes." Ending the call, Dean shook his head. "It was dad, he's having issues with the script and the producer, and was threatening to go wring Jenkin's neck."

"I'll stay." Sam motioned to where Chloe was. "You go deal with him."

"You'd swear this man is a teenager," Dean growled as he shoved his phone into his pocket. "I'll come back for you."

Sam nodded. "See you later."

Dean nodded, his gaze on Chloe. "See you in a bit."

Chloe smiled softly as she waved.

Both Chloe and Sam watched Dean storm out, grumbling to himself as he did, before they moved to the sofa and collapsed onto it.

"Dad's been in a snit ever since the Ruby DeMonique video was featured on E!News," Sam admitted as he leaned his head back and gazed up at the ceiling. "He's blaming them for Lois not answering any phone calls, and not talking to him on the set."

Chloe turned so that she leaned with her back against the armrest, seated Indian Style, and faced Sam. "So it's E!News' fault that she broke up with him for good this time, and not the fact that he slept with someone else?"

"Basically." Sam let out a deep sigh. "I love him, he's my father and all that so I guess I'm forced to love him and even feel sorry for him somewhat, but sometimes I just want to strangle him."

"So you're saying that he's suffering now that Lois has cut him off?" Chloe leaned sideways against the sofa.

Sam took in a deep breath. "Here's the thing: my father isn't one to show emotion. That being said, he's being a more miserable bastard than usual, so I can say without a doubt that he's being affected by losing her." Sam's blue/greens turned on Chloe. "I think he's finally realized how much he actually cared about her, and he probably doesn't like the fact at all."

"Your father's a real work of art."

"To be fair, he 's always said the only woman he'd ever loved in his life was my mother, and that he didn't have the ability to love anyone else after her." Sam's gaze returned to the ceiling. "And he's usually upfront with his women about that fact, so he's probably told Lois the same thing, so she knew what she was getting into when she started a relationship with him."

Chloe sighed. "She's always been in love with him though."

Sam nodded. "She's told me as much." He twisted his lips. "It makes me _really_ want them to work out. He mightn't deserve it, but, well, he's my father, you know? I want him to have someone who loves him the way she does, or did." He sighed. "I don't know if she still loves him like that after the Ruby thing." His gaze returned to Chloe. "Does she?"

Chloe shrugged. "I don't think _she_ even knows if she does."

Sam sighed as his gaze returned to the ceiling. "How has she been doing with this whole situation?"

"Good." Chloe licked her lips. "Ric's been a godsend, really. If it wasn't for him being available and willing to train her 24/7, I don't think she'd be handling it so well." The blonde paused when she noticed the odd expression on Sam's face. "What?"

"Nothing." Sam shrugged as he got more comfortable on the sofa.

Chloe narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't give me that, something's ticked you off."

Sam licked his lips. "Well, I know my dad got himself into this mess, and I'm not defending him-."

"You better not be."

"But I'm just saying that these Mystic Falls guys sure seem to like to swoop in and meddle during relationship problems, that's all." Sam wouldn't look at her. "It just seems like a pattern, a convenient one."

Chloe blinked, shocked. "What about any of this is convenient?"

"Lois is your last real link to us, that's all." Sam wouldn't look at her. "It would be convenient for Damon if his best friend seduced her over to the dark side."

Chloe stared at Sam in shock. "Oh wow. I would have expected this from Dean, but not from you."

Sam flinched. "I'm not-."

"This has nothing to do with Damon." Chloe frowned as she sat up straighter. "If anything, Alaric does his best _not_ to show the fact that he's crushing, big time, on my cousin whenever Damon is around, because Damon can be a big _dick_ about these sorts of things." She narrowed her eyes at Sam. "This isn't some conspiracy, a premeditated plan between the two of them to take your ally away from you." She stood as she shook her head. "She's in pain right now and I can't believe-."

Sam reached out and grabbed her hand. "I know, I'm sorry. I'm disgusted with myself right now."

Chloe's gaze lowered to Sam in silence.

Sam sighed as he lowered his head in shame. "Can you please just ignore everything I've just said? Believe it or not, dad's not the only one who's been on edge and a total dick these last couple of days."

Chloe frowned slightly as she sat back down. "What are you talking about?"

"I think it's the stress getting to us," Sam admitted sheepishly. "But I've been noticing dad, Dean and I acting out more than usual. Then again, Jenkins is riding our asses, they've changed our filming schedule to some even more ungodly hour in the morning, and it's harder and harder to sleep at night-so we're not exactly rested in the mornings."

Chloe frowned darker. "And this whole Originals thing isn't helping."

"It's helping our career." Sam sneered. "The people on the show _love_ it, and they also the fact that we've been invited to this ball. The writers are already trying to figure out how to write the Originals into the show in a positive way-considering their less than positive portrayal of vampires in the past." He snickered. "I overheard a couple of them discussing maybe making it so that the female Original, Rachel, and I had had a brief love affair when my character was in Stanford, before I met the Jessica character."

The blonde tilted her head to the side, darkly amused. "So they're definitely scrapping the 'Chloe-as-Sam's-Soulmate' theory then, huh?" She was a little relieved because it meant one thing: "The mini story arc they wanted me to do in Paranormal must have been scrapped."

Sam's eyes widened. "I never heard of this. Who told you the writers had a story arc planned with a return for you?"

"Lois."

He blinked. "Oh… this is making more sense now!"

Chloe's relief was melting away. "What is making more sense now?"

"Well, because the Originals are hot topics the writers thought that characters based off them would help the ratings spike, and not only that, but and I quote something I overheard: 'by meeting up with her again he realizes the consequences of a vampire princess falling in love with him and how it affected him and his life without him knowing, especially when she brings someone else along with her'." Sam ran his fingers through his hair. "I thought they were going to do something like make her have gotten pregnant by Sam Wesson-Smith, which we all know vampires can't become because they are dead, but with the information you're giving I'm thinking they might bring your character into the mix."

Chloe blinked. "How so?"

"Well," Sam leaned forwards. "In the episode you appeared in, your character had a mysterious 'benefactor' that not even Lois' had ever met, right? It's the reason why, when your character disappears on a hunt with your boyfriend, Lois' joins up with our team, because she wants to find out who that benefactor is. Who has been supplying your weapons? Who has been giving you money? Who has been giving you information and orders all these years-and _why_? Also-why are you missing? Her character found the dead monster you were hunting, so obviously you made it out of the hunt alive."

Chloe's eyes widened as she made the connection. "You think they're going to write that my character works for the Originals-has been working for them all along."

Sam nodded. "It makes perfect sense."

Chloe leaned back hard against the sofa.

"This would actually be one of the most interesting and original plot-twists they've written in a while," Sam admitted sheepishly. "With the Original-craze, and with _you_ coming back out of the woodwork, it would be the _perfect_ way to combine both of the things making the most noise in Hollywood _and_ spike our ratings to a new height."

"I have to hand it to your writers, for once they have a half-decent storyline." Chloe took in a deep breath. "When did my life become a poorly researched nighttime supernatural drama?"

Sam reached over and placed his hand on her shoulder, his thumb working over a tension knot. "Everything will be alright."

Her greens met his blue/greens, and she sighed, wishing she could believe that as fully as he did.

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"I always knew you'd take to the training like a fish to water, but I have to admit that I'm shocked at just how quickly you really are learning these techniques and making them your own."

Lois wiped at the sweat on her forehead, a smile tilting her lips and pride welling in her chest as she sidled a sideways glance in Alaric's direction. "Well, thank you, Sensei."

Alaric grinned as he shook his head. "You even took Stefan by surprise at that last part, and got him in the balls."

Lois bit down on her bottom lip and chuckled, admittedly feeling a little bad for that one. "To be fair, that one wasn't premeditated. He had me really locked down and my dad's self-defense training mixed in with _your_ lessons and culminated in me finding out that vampire testicles are just as sensitive as human testicles."

"They don't grow a steel covering when guys turn into vampires." Stefan offered that bit of information from the backseat, a pack of ice still cradled against his crutch.

Lois made a face as she turned in her seat to look back at him. "I _really_ didn't even realize what I was doing."

He raised an eyebrow at her.

"I didn't! I swear!" Lois' eyes widened. "Even though you and Chloe _totally_ deserve a knee in the testicles and boob-punch respectively for doing the dirty-multiple times-on my car's hood in plain view from the living room window!"

Alaric snorted in dark amusement.

Stefan had the grace to look ashamed. "We're going to buy you a new car."

She rolled her eyes. "No need to go to such extremes. A _very _thorough car wash will do." She was still firmly Team Winchester, but unlike with Damon, Lois couldn't _dislike_ Stefan. There was just something about this vampire that was annoyingly likable, and she could see why he'd gotten so completely under her cousin's skin. It irritated her to no small degree, but she'd come to terms with the fact that she actually got along with Stefan Salvatore and kinda liked him as a person.

Stefan shifted in his seat and pressed the bag of ice against his manhood.

Lois eyed him before she turned around in her seat and cleared her throat. "So, where are Striperella and Prince Uncharming?"

Alaric tensed slightly at the wheel. "Katherine's been sneaking out these last couple of nights and Damon's tailing her to see where she's going."

Lois raised an eyebrow. "You guys don't think we can trust her?"

"We _know_ we can't trust her." Stefan leaned his head back and looked up at the ceiling. "We're just waiting for some concrete proof before Damon has the permission to stake her."

The brunette frowned slightly as she undid her seatbelt and turned once more to stare at the vampire in the back seat. "On the day we first met you told me that for vampires family was everything. Katherine is your family, so why don't you not only _not _care if she lives or dies-but are actively seeking out her death?" She licked her lips. "I get that she's annoying and all that, and if she's boning us then I'll be joining the line of those who want to jam a stake through her heart, but if vampires can switch so easily from loving their family to killing them I'm really uneasy with the fact that you consider my cousin your family. Who's to say in the next ten years she won't be the one you guys decide needs to be staked once you have a falling out?"

Stefan turned his gaze on Lois. "That wouldn't happen."

"Why not?" She narrowed her hazels. "What's to stop this ugly dance from repeating itself?"

He hissed as he straightened. "I'm in love with your cousin."

Lois' eyes widened in shock that the vampire had actually admitted that out loud, she'd realized those words had never been exchanged between her cousin and the Salvatore brothers.

Alaric sent them a sideways glance, his body tense and his eyes wide, displaying his own shock at this revelation.

"But you were once in love with Katherine." Lois licked her lips as she stalled for a moment, gaze on Stefan.

"It's more complicated than that." Stefan eyed Lois thoughtfully. "I loved Katherine once, that's true, when I thought she was human. And then I found out she was a vampire, and that love turned into terror. She Compelled it away though, and that Compulsion didn't leave me until I died and became a vampire."

Lois' eyes widened in horror at that revelation.

Stefan hesitated. "There is something I feel the need to tell you, something, I believe, you have already figured out for yourself."

Lois stared at him, something heavy on her chest.

Something dark and tortured flashed over Stefan's face as he stared at her. "I was the one who turned your cousin into a vampire."

Lois froze, eyes wide.

That shame was thick and heavy on his face. "I was a different person then than I am now, but that doesn't change what I did, or that I hate myself for it." Stefan lowered his gaze, as if unable to look at her. "As she struggled with her bloodlust, with her control of her vampire abilities… As her peculiarities emerged... I knew that it was all _my fault_. And know if I hadn't lost control of my bloodlust, if I hadn't gone Ripper, if Chloe hadn't tried to save that girl at Miss Mystic… She's being targeted by these Original Vampires _because I turned her into a vampire_-this is all _my fault_." Stefan took in a deep breath as he looked away, visibly affected. "You don't understand how much that kills me. She-Chloe's the best thing that has happened to me since I became a vampire, I could _never_ hurt her." Stefan's gaze finally rose to Lois. "I'd _die_ for her."

Lois felt so cold as she stared at the vampire. She'd always known deep down inside of her that one of the Salvatores had turned Chloe, but she'd always assumed that it was Damon and not Stefan. This news rocked her and she didn't know what to do with it. The brunette took in a deep breath. "What if she leaves you? What if she chooses Dean? Or Sam? Or even both of them? How will that change how you feel?"

"It won't." Stefan's face was resolute.

"You can't-."

"I would _never_ hurt her." Stefan interrupted Lois, voice even but eyes hard. "She's the one person I could never hurt. Never."

"You killed her once before." Lois narrowed her eyes, needing to be sure, not willing to have any doubts when it came to her cousin's safety. "What's to stop you from doing it again?"

Stefan flinched before his eyes went harder as he opened his mouth to answer.

"Hold onto something!" Alaric suddenly yelled as he held out his arm across Lois's back protectively before he slammed on the breaks.

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Damon wasn't the most patient of guys, and a part of him wanted to go and demand Katherine tell him what the hell she was up to, but he decided he'd play by Ric's rules for at least ten more minutes. If no one else appeared at Katherine's table in the bar she'd been in by herself all this time, then Damon figured he'd done his part and was going to screw the rules and do this his way. He was never one to do things by the books anyway. The only reason he hadn't taken things into his hands already was because if Katherine was working with someone else, he wanted to know _who_ it was, because this involved Chloe. And if there was someone else _other_ than the Originals involved in this mixture he'd like to know. Didn't mean he _had_ to know though. If a surprise cropped up he'd find a way to handle it and protect his girl. It was as simple as that.

At the table, Katherine texted on her phone while sipping a glass of wine.

Damon's phone rang and he raised an eyebrow as he received a text which read: **Are you just going to stand there all night like a Creeper or are you going to join me?**

A muscle jumped in his cheek as he put his phone back in his jacket pocket. "Screw this." The vampire made his way into the bar towards the table and slid into the chair opposite Katherine, raising an eyebrow at her. "What game are you playing?"

"This coming from the guy stalking me." She took a calm sip of her drink.

He leaned over the table, far from amused. "Who are you meeting here?"

"You."

He snorted. "Don't play games with me."

Katherine took another sip of her wine. "I knew this was the only way to get you out of the house and alone with me. You wouldn't send Chloe to trail me, Alaric is busy training Lois, and Stefan's been helping him lately. So that leaves _you_ to see what Big Bad Katherine is up to." She put down the glass and clasped her hands in front of her. "You took longer to take the bait than I expected, but what the hell. You're here."

Damon frowned and stood, not at all happy that he'd fallen into another of her traps. "I'm leaving."

"Not if you actually _want_ your little plaything to live." Katherine leaned back and picked up her glass of wine, swirling the dark red liquid inside of it. "We both know that no one else in that house is capable or willing of doing what needs to be done. Things like _morals_ get in their way. But you and me? We're not hampered by those sorts of things. _We_ are more than willing to do what needs to be done to make sure she's safe, _forever_."

Damon's eyes narrowed his eyes as he sat down once more and leaned across the table. "I don't believe for one second that you actually give a rat's ass that she's safe."

"I care that _I_ am safe, and for _me_ to be safe, _she_ has to be safe." Katherine took another sip of her drink. "It's in _both_ of our interests that Niklaus never gets his hands on her."

"You see, I've been wondering about that." Damon smirked darkly. "I'm beginning to ask _why_ it's in _my_ best interest to keep her from him. He just wants her to Compel humans into thinking vampires are friendlies, _and_ he wants you dead. Either way, I have no problem with his plan."

A muscle ticked in Katherine's cheek before she smirked and leaned forwards on the table, face close to Damon's. "I wonder how the hunter would feel knowing you'd so happily sell out the humans and their well being for your own selfishness."

"He wouldn't be that surprised, really." Damon shrugged. "He _does_ know me."

Katherine pouted. "What happened to the sweet boy I used to know?"

"You killed him, let him think you were trapped in a crypt desiccated and that he had to free you, he spent centuries trying to figure out how to do so, and then he realized you were free all this time and a that you were a monumental _bitch_." Damon counted off on his fingers. "There's more to it than that, of course, but those were what I could think of off of the top of my head." He leaned back hard against the seat and gave her a smirk.

Katherine glared at him and finished her glass of wine. "You're a fool if you think Klaus is just going to be happy with making Chloe Compel the humans who have Vervain in their system that one time for that one issue. Once he gets his claws into her, you'll never get her back."

Damon narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth when his phone rang. He raised his hand as he eyed the blocked number. "Hold that thought." The vampire brought the phone to his ear. "Yes?"

"Mr Damon Salvatore, I presume."

Damon narrowed his eyes further. "Who the hell is this and how did you get this number?"

"How I obtained your number is inconsequential," the voice on the other end of the line declared. "What is of importance is the fact that I have credible information that Niklaus Mikealson has your brother, and Alaric Saltzman. Miss Lois Lane has been dropped off to the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, although it will be found that despite the conditions of the wreckage her injuries are minimal. Measures were taken to insure her safe arrival at the hospital."

Vampire blood.

Damon could read between the lines and understood enough that the Originals had caused a crash that had injured Lois badly enough that vampire blood had been needed to keep her alive to get her to the hospital. But he really didn't care about that, what he cared about was the fact that they'd taken Alaric and Stefan hostage. "What the hell does that Original bastard want with my brother and Ric?"

Katherine's eyes widened. "He has Stefan?"

"I'd ask your pretty drinking buddy about that. She knows more than she's telling you." And with that he hung up.

Damon tried calling the number only to find it disconnected. He then hissed before he reached over and grabbed Katherine by the neck, squeezing her viciously, ignoring the looks he was receiving from the humans in the bar. "Start talking. _Now_."

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**TBC**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: Don't own Smallville/Vampire Diaries/Supernatural**

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"I am _not_ leaving here!" Lois glared at Chloe as she twirled in mid-pace to face her cousin. "I'm _fine_. The doctors gave me a clean bill of health!"

"That's only because you have vampire blood running through your veins!" Chloe glared at the brunette, blood beginning to pool in her eyes and features sharpening as she slowly but surely lost control of herself in her moment of emotional distress. "If something happens to you while it's still in you, you could turn into a vampire!"

Damon raised an eyebrow. "And that would be worse than her dying and there _not_ being any vampire blood in her?"

Chloe turned a glare on him. "Do you think she'd _want_ to be a vampire, Damon?"

"_You_ didn't want to be one," he reminded her. "If I recall, when you awoke during your transition you attacked me and told me you did _not_ want to become one." He smirked. "And you haven't turned out _too_ bad."

"Really, Damon, have I taught you _nothing_ on how to treat women?" A voice sighed from the other side of the gate.

Chloe turned to see a striking, statuesque redhead. "You must be Sage."

"And _you_ are Chloe Sullivan." Her gaze shifted over to Lois. "And Lois Lane… Ricky told me about you." Her expression was solemn as she eyed the building. "Quite the place you have here."

Sam's eyes narrowed in confusion. "How do I know you?"

Her light blue eyes rested on him for a second before she smiled slightly. "I'm surprised that you remember me, you were very young when you met me." She licked her lips and waited a beat before asking: "How's Mary?"

Chloe's eyes widened.

So did Sam's. "You knew our mother?"

"Knew." Sage's smile fell slightly at the word. "I hadn't realized she'd died."

Sam nodded in silence.

"I'm sorry to hear that." And Sage seemed sincere. "Even though we'd lost contact, Mary Campbell was a good friend of mine, despite her taste in men."

Chloe's gaze then went to the necklace Sam wore, the vervain necklace, similar to the one Dean wore, the one that their _mother_ had given them. Why hadn't she made the connection before? She'd always figured the woman had _known_ about the supernatural, and yet it seemed that Mary was much more involved in the supernatural world than met the eye.

"How did she die?" Sage asked softly.

Sam cleared his throat. "Leukemia."

An odd expression crossed Sage's face before she cleared her throat. "I'm sorry."

Sam nodded.

Sage licked her lips. "I'm ready to be invited in now."

Lois eyed Sage thoughtfully as she folded her arms over her chest.

Chloe's gaze went to Damon in question. "Alaric trusted her?"

Damon raised an eyebrow before he nodded. "I think so."

"Ricky and I were like _this_." Sage crossed fingers.

Lois raised an eyebrow. "How do we know you weren't the one who betrayed us to the Originals?"

Sage sneered at her. "Is someone jealous Ricky didn't tell her about me?"

Lois rolled her eyes. "I almost died tonight, and two of our friends are captured. I'm wondering why he felt he couldn't tell us about you."

Sage took in a deep breath. "He's protecting me."

A muscle ticked in Lois' cheek. "Ric? He's a vampire hunter. Why would he protect a vampire?" She then paused, as if thinking it over as her gaze went to Chloe and Damon, before she groaned. "Oh god-that's possible." She glared as she turned to Sage. "What's so special about _you_ though? Why would he protect _you_?"

"Well, I _am_ cute." Sage was obviously having fun riling Lois up. "And have you _seen_ this whole package in the sunlight without the jacket?"

Lois narrowed her eyes on her.

Sage's lips twitched before she sighed and licked her lips. "I'm valuable to Ricky, ok? I'm valuable to _all_ of you." Her gaze went to Chloe. "And if you get whatever human owns this place to invite me in, I'll prove it."

Chloe stared at the taller, beautiful redhead, and nodded.

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"Any idea why we're here?" Alaric, mostly healed thanks to vampire blood, sent a look in Stefan's direction.

"Hostages/bargaining tools?" Stefan chanced a guess as he looked around the lucratively decorated room, admittedly not feeling much like a hostage or a bargaining tool considering he wasn't chained or anything, but considering how they'd been brought here this was all he could come up with at the moment.

"If Lois died in that accident..." Alaric's fists were clenched.

"She's fine." Stefan picked at a grape from the banquet table that had been laid out before them. "I overheard some of the men who brought us here talking and they said that she was given vampire blood and left at a hospital in Hollywood. She wasn't the intended victim here."

Relief was the first emotion on Alaric's face, and then confusion. "Wait, you mean _we_ were?"

Stefan nodded. "Makes you wonder _why_."

"Let me be a good host and not leave my guests in a state of wonder then," a voice announced as a door opened and Niklaus Mikaelson entered, flanked on either side by his siblings, Elijah and Rebekah. "You're to be our honored guests at the ball."

Stefan paused, confused, and could see the same expression on Alaric's face. "Excuse me?"

"Well, my dear _dear_ sister needs a date." Niklaus announced as he motioned towards Rebekah Mikaelson. "And as you can understand, it is hard for someone of her standing to find one. So I assured her I'd find something suitable." He smirked as he moved towards Stefan and placed a hand on Stefan's shoulder. "You two will do splendidly I am sure."

Rebekah didn't react either way to this situation.

Alaric looked utterly confused. "I don't understand. Did we just get the equivalent of bride-napped?"

Stefan frowned at the Original Vampire, narrowing his eyes at him. "Why us? What do you get out of this?"

"Ah, Stefan, couldn't I have just missed your company?" Niklaus asked curiously.

Stefan blinked in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Alaric turned towards him. "Do you two know each other?"

Stefan shook his head. "No, we don't."

Niklaus smirked. "It'll all be explained better at the ball. Come now, you too Mr Saltzman. I am very curious to learn more about vampire hunters. I met one you know, my sister courted one once. I was forced to kill him before I learnt anything about his kind when he foolishly tried killing my family, so I find the thought of having dinner and conversing with you _very_ fascinating."

Elijah and Rebekah shared looks.

Alaric and Stefan shared looks.

Niklaus was the only one who looked completely at ease and more than a little amused with this whole situation.

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"_No_." Chloe shook her head and folded her arms over her chest.

"Look, the special vampire sedative Alaric gave Damon, and that Damon used on Katherine, is the only reason he was able to take her down. She has too many years on him. She's going to wake up any minute now and I'm going to be the only one strong enough to fight her." Sage folded her own arms over her chest. "We're going to have to do this while she's still out. And we don't have more of Alaric's vampire sedative lying around, or if we do, we don't know where he has it hidden. So we can't waste this time fighting. I want someone in there with me, and I want it to be her."

"Why her?" Chloe narrowed her eyes on the redhead. "I'll do it."

"Normally I'd choose you given the fact that you're not only from Katherine's bloodline, but also Stefan's your sire and you're tied to this whole thing with Klaus and the other Originals…" Sage tilted her head. "But the thing is, Damon's a wild card and everyone else out here are humans who don't stand a chance against him if he decides to do something stupid while the both of us are under the trance I'll have to put us under to do this."

"_Hey_!" Damon snapped.

Lois and Sam didn't look too happy about that last sentence either.

"So why not me?" Sam wanted to know.

Sage turned her gaze on Sam. "I promised your mom I wouldn't get you involved in anything like this, and I'm going to keep that promise." Her gaze went to Lois. "Also, she's a blood relative of Chloe, which means she's close enough of an anchor to be a substitute for me to use to target the memories I'll be looking for."

"Okay." Lois nodded.

Chloe grabbed her arm. "You're going to go into Katherine's _mind_."

"I know." Lois nodded and gave Chloe a little smile. "I didn't say I _liked_ it, but I'll do it." She pulled her arm out of her cousin's hold and hugged the blonde. "I'll be _fine_."

Sage watched them before she curled her finger towards Lois. "Come on."

Lois sighed as she pulled away and moved towards the redhead. "What do I do?"

Sage merely pressed her palm against Lois forehead and then reached down to press her other palm against Katherine's.

Lois raised an eyebrow. "Any time now."

Sage frowned. "I'm doing it."

The brunette blinked. "Doing what?"

The redhead appeared disturbed as she pulled her hand away from Lois' and stared at her in confusion before she pressed her hand to Lois' forehead once more and waited, eyes narrowed further. "What the hell?"

Lois's hazels were the picture of confusion. "Am I missing something?"

"Why isn't it working on you?" Sage removed her hand from Lois' forehead only to press it once more, almost desperately. "It should be working!"

"What should be happening right now?" Lois wanted to know.

Sage licked her lips before she turned to Damon. "If you do _anything_ stupid while we're in there, something could go wrong and her subconscious could get stuck inside of Katherine's head, do you understand me?"

Damon raised an eyebrow. "Do I look as if I _care_ if "Codename: _Legs"_ gets stuck inside of Katherine?"

Sam opened his mouth, eyes narrowed.

Sage scoffed. "I wasn't talking about _Lois_." And with that she twisted her body and pressed her palm against Chloe's forehead.

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"And there we were, literally to our knees in shit." Niklaus Mikaelson chuckled darkly as he shook his head and cut his meat with his fork and knife, his brothers and sister at the dinner table, all very polite and dashing, as if they weren't having dinner with hostages. "Do you remember that evening, Elijah?"

"The smell wasn't something one could easily forget." Elijah raised an eyebrow as he reached for a goblet of what could either be wine or blood, Alaric didn't know which and didn't care to know the answer.

"Can we _not_ talk about excrement?" Rebekah Mikealson let out a sigh of disgust as she eyed her food with distaste. "You're putting me completely off of my meal."

"You're so _delicate_, sister." Kol's expression was taunting as he smirked, cutting a bloody piece of meat and stuffing it into his mouth, chewing and swallowing it before his gaze went to his most silent brother. "Tell me something, Finn, is it _true_ you were covered from head to _toe_ in the shit?"

Finn raised an eyebrow as his gaze went to Klaus and then back to their youngest brother. "Out of respect for our sister, I believe we should change the subject."

"_Thank you_." Rebekah breathed out a sigh of relief. "At least _one_ of you has some sort of heart."

"Finn's a regular bleeding heart, he is." Klaus smiled a sneering smile at his brother, seeming far from approving of this. "So noble, so virtuous."

Finn ignored him and continued cutting into his meat.

A muscle ticked in Klaus' cheek before he forced his smile larger and turned it on his guests, particularly Stefan. "Enough about _my_ family. Tell me about _yours_."

Alaric took this moment to eye the Original family, the tension underlying this whole dinner, and realized that it wasn't just because they were dinning with hostages. It would seem that despite the united front that they showed to the media, things weren't all sunshines and roses in the Originals' camp when the cameras weren't rolling. There seemed to be a particular tension between Finn and Klaus.

Stefan cleared his throat, eyes on Niklaus. "What about my family? I think you know quite a bit about them already."

The leader of the Originals (and why was he the leader given the fact that he obviously wasn't the eldest?) smirked as he eyed Stefan. "Tell me about your brother, Damon."

Stefan's gaze went to the other Originals before returning to Niklaus. "Nothing much to really say about him. We were close when we were humans but we drifted apart after we turned into vampires, and we're only just reconnecting." He took in a deep breath. "I love him, but most of the time I want to stake him."

Klaus' lips twitched in amusement. "I understand the sentiment."

His siblings shared uneasy looks.

"What about Katherine?" Klaus surprised Alaric by not directly asking about Chloe, because the Original did not seem like the type to beat around the bush, and it was obvious that she was the one that he really wanted to know about. "I know she is your sire, and I know that she faked her own death and is back in town."

Stefan seemed to be thinking the same thing as Alaric, because his eyes narrowed slightly and his answer was slower this time. "Then you basically know about as much about her as I do." He paused before adding: "Probably more."

Klaus smirked. "I probably do."

"I have to ask," Kol interrupted the moment, a devious smirk on his face. "Is Lois Lane _anything_ like Lois Lace? Because for a human, Lois Lace is fucking hot."

"Don't be vulgar." Rebekah made a face.

Kol ignored her, eyes on Stefan and Alaric, waiting for an answer.

Stefan blinked, confused. "I wouldn't know. I don't watch Paranormal." He turned to Alaric.

Ric cleared his throat as all those vampires turned their eyes on him, except for Finn, who continued to pay attention to his food. "Well, from the little amount of time I've spent with her, I'd say that the writers _have_ taken some of Lois and put into her character, but you can't think you know Lois Lane just because you've watched her character on Paranormal. She's so much more than what the writers have given her credit for." He licked his lips, very uneasy under their scrutiny, even if Elijah's only seemed like polite interest. "If you want to know what Lois Lane is more like, Supernatural Diaries is a much better medium. You see her as she really is, and not as the script she's playing. But even then, you have to remember that they cut out and edit a lot of things for television so that's still not the complete Lois Lane Experience."

Kol's lips twitched. "The Complete Lois Lane Experience." He chuckled. "I like the sound of that."

Alaric could have smacked himself.

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"So this is _my_ fault, now?" Chloe made a face as she stared at the redhead in disbelief.

Sage frowned. "All I'm saying is that first your cousin is impossible to access, and now I'm having trouble controlling the memories I'm evoking with you as my co-pilot, and that's never happened before." The redhead placed her hands on her hips. "The only thing in common in both instances? Your bloodline. So yeah, it's your fault."

Chloe glared at the woman before she huffed and shook her head. "So what now?"

"_Now_, you let me regain control of the situation." Sage pouted. "It wont take me too long, especially not now that we're in here, but we're wasting time and-_finally_!"

The scenery around them changed from utter darkness to the inside of a 20's club. They could see Katherine in all her flapper glory, leaning in a dark corner, watching someone.

Chloe's gaze followed Katherine's and her eyes widened when she saw Stefan sitting at a table with Niklaus Mikaelson.

The blonde found herself moving through the crowd towards the table without even realizing what she was doing, drawn towards the two vampires who were obviously enjoying the other's company. What in the world was going on? Why was Stefan here? _What_ was he doing here? With _Niklaus_ of all people? Hadn't he told her that he hadn't known that the Originals existed before they came out of the proverbial closet?

_**"He said he loved her, but after having daggered him for a couple hundred years it was easy to get him to see things my way." Niklaus drank something thick and red as he eyed some women dancing. "That's the thing about my brother, he's so high and mighty, so full of self-righteousness, it's sickening. Thing is, though, if he had really loved that low-classed harlot of his as he says he does, he would have gone to her the moment he was free, despite the consequences, and he didn't."**_

_** Stefan nodded as he downed his own glass of dark red liquid. "Who really believes in love anymore, anyway?"**_

_** The Original vampire smirked. "My sister. After all these centuries she's still looking for that fairy tale romance to sweep her off her feet."**_

_** "Rebekah?" Stefan looked quizzical. "You'd have me believe she is a hopeless romantic?"**_

_** "Believe it or not, my siblings all share a hint of romanticism in them." Niklaus made up his face as he took a long gulp of his drink. "Take Elijah for example. He and I fought over the same woman once and our relationship has never been the same. I believe he truly believed himself in love with her and still resents me for how that situation worked out."**_

_** Stefan thought for a moment. "Women have a way of ruining brotherhood."**_

_** Niklaus snorted. "Here here."**_

_** The men touched glasses in a toast.**_

__Chloe frowned, a little hurt despite knowing that Stefan was referring to Katherine and not her.

"As interesting and _nauseating_ as this bromance is…" Sage looked like she'd swallowed a lemon. "This doesn't explain _anything_."

"It tells me that Stefan's not being honest with us." Chloe licked her lips. "He _does_ know Niklaus Mikaelson. That's probably _why_ he was taken." She sighed, that hurt growing. "Why didn't he feel like he could trust me with the truth? That he could tell me that he not only knew that Originals existed-but that he actually _knew_ the Originals?"

"And why was _Ricky_ taken?" Sage frowned as she folded her arms over her chest, her narrowed gaze on Katherine, who hid in the shadows and watched Niklaus and Stefan with distrust and unease on her face.

_**Suddenly the scene around them changed to an alleyway, Stefan and Niklaus sharing the remains of a poor girl. This was obviously Stefan during his Ripper days because the girl had literally been ripped apart, her blood bathing the vampires and the walls of the alleyway more than having filled their stomachs and quenched their thirst. And yet they were both darkly amused and obviously having a great time as they continued to talk.**_

_** Katherine, from her vantage point in the shadows on the roof of a nearby building, watched.**_

Chloe and Sage were next to Stefan and Niklaus, not worrying about being seen as they were in Katherine's memories and not a part of them.

_**"And she wanted us to be a happy family, can you believe that?" Stefan's face was disgusted as he licked blood off of the severed hand. "Her, my brother and I. She Compelled me to be okay with the idea but even Compelled I wasn't too happy with the thought as a human, and once I turned the idea repulsed me."**_

_** Niklaus leaned against the wall, fangs deep within a thigh before finally discarding it once all the blood was gone. "I would find it very hard to share a girl with anyone, but especially with one of my brothers."**_

_** "I was so furious, Klaus, you have no idea." Stefan shook his head. "I mean, the bitch was just forcing her will on me, on the both of us, and Damon was fine being her little puppet and doing whatever she wanted. He was completely in love with her, he told me that she hadn't had to Compel him after he found out she was a vampire, and that's okay. He'd loved her completely, he would have accepted anything for her-but even he wouldn't have accepted a life with me in it."**_

_** Niklaus-or Klaus-as Stefan called him, nodded, seeming to genuinely care what Stefan was telling him. "There's no woman worth sharing, mate."**_

_** Stefan nodded in full agreement. "Unless you just don't give two shits about her."**_

__Chloe licked her lips, that hurt feeling growing worse and worse in her stomach.

_**Stefan paused.**_

_** Klaus eyed the younger vampire. "What is it?"**_

_** Stefan appeared hesitant, deep in thought, before he looked up at Klaus. "Or… unless that's the only way to keep from losing her completely."**_

__Chloe narrowed her eyes slightly at her sire.

_**Suddenly the scenery blurred and changed once more, and they were in the Californian town Chloe, Damon and Stefan lived in. **_

_** Katherine was leaning against her car as a guy she'd Compelled filled it up with gas for free. She eyed her nails and looked around her, seemingly bored and ready to move on as soon as the tank was filled.**_

_** "Really Stefan, would it KILL you to have some fun and let others have fun as well?" Damon turned the corner some distance away.**_

_** "Your definition of fun always ends up in someone ending up dead." Stefan glared at Damon as he turned the corner seconds after his older brother.**_

_** Katherine's eyes widened as she raced to hide behind the car, spying on the two vampires, the shock obvious on her face. "I can't believe it. What are they doing together? I've never-in all these centuries I've never seen them in the same place at the same time-TALKING to each other!"**_

_** Damon, unaware that they were being watched, rolled his eyes at Stefan. "You just don't know how to have fun."**_

_** Stefan returned the eye-roll to his brother. "Your definition of fun is twisted."**_

_** "You didn't say that last night." Damon's smile was sin.**_

_** Katherine blinked. "Are they-?"**_

_** Stefan smirked, although he looked a little embarrassed. "That was the exception. And that was only because there was a safe word."**_

_** Katherine's eyes widened. "They are!"**_

_** "You have to admit that she gives as good as she gets." Damon chuckled lecherously. "I didn't think she'd hold out as much as she did."**_

_** Stefan's smile was shockingly just as lecherous. "I didn't either."**_

_** Katherine's expression darkened in confusion. "She?"**_

_** Up ahead, Chloe appeared, nose-deep in a magazine which featured Sam, Dean, John and Lois on the front for a Paranormal exclusive. **_

_** Damon grinned. "There's our girl." His grin melted slightly at the magazine. "Gonna make the trashmag vanish though."**_

_** Stefan ignored Damon and walked up towards Chloe, moving the magazine down and kissing the surprised blonde on her lips.**_

_** Chloe smiled into the kiss, her hands curling around her sire in a hug as she arched into him.**_

_** Katherine frowned darkly.**_

_** Damon snatched the magazine from Chloe's hand and threw it behind him while she was distracted, and the second Stefan released her he'd yanked the laughing girl into his chest and captured her lips with his hungrily.**_

_** Katherine's eyes widened in horror as her fists clenched tightly at her side.**_

_** The people mulled around the triad, used to their scandalous relationship by now and having grown used to it.**_

_** Damon pulled away enough to lift Chloe up and throw her over his shoulder, giving her plump tush a playful slap. "Let's go home, Cinderella. It's midnight. Time to lose the clothes."**_

_** Stefan snorted in dark amusement, pressed a deep kiss to Chloe's mouth as she hung over Damon's shoulder, and with that the three laughed as they made their way towards their car.**_

_** Katherine watched them as they left, her face darkening. "Looks like I'm going to be sticking around this hick town after all."**_

Sage turned to Chloe. "Seems like you had a nice life here."

Chloe watched the car drive away. "I did."

Sage eyed her thoughtfully. "Were you happy?"

Chloe turned towards her, thought about it for a moment, and then nodded as a smile tilted her lips. "Yeah."

Suddenly the scenery changed to reveal a dark restaurant, and Katharine sitting on her own, obviously waiting for someone.

_**"He better not stand me up." Katherine licked her lips as she tapped her fingers against the table.**_

_** Finally, a handsome man entered the restaurant and came to sit down across from her. "You're risking a lot, calling me, Katerina."**_

Sage's eyes widened in horror.

_**"I have a trade, for Klaus." Katherine took in a deep breath. "I know that he's planning on coming out to the humans, and I know a vampire who he'd find useful. She can Compel anyone who is on Vervain."**_

_** He froze. "Impossible."**_

_** "No. I've seen it with my own eyes." Katherine leaned forwards. "This is my freedom I'm bartering, I wouldn't come with information I haven't triple-checked. Tell him I'll give him the name and location of this vampire if he'll give me my pardon."**_

_** "And why should I help you?" The vampire narrowed his eyes.**_

_** "Because I could give **__you__** some information that might interest **__you__** as well, concerning **__her__**." Katherine raised an eyebrow.**_

_** He sneered. "I could not care less."**_

_** Katherine smirked. "So you do not care that for the first time since you, she's **__genuinely__** grown close to another male? A **__human__** male at that?"**_

_** A growl escaped his lips. "Who is he?"**_

_** Katherine's smirk grew larger. "Help me get my message to your brother, Finn, and I'll tell you all about Sage's new friend."**_

Sage's eyes widened in shock. "I'm the reason Ricky was taken."

Chloe turned towards Sage. "What's your connection to Finn Mikaelson?"

Sage stared at the memory in almost a trance before she turned to Chloe. "He's my sire."

Chloe's eyes widened. "_What_?"

"The reason I've been helping Ricky is so that we can find a way to free Finn from Klaus power over him and the rest of his siblings. At first we were planning on killing Niklaus but then we found out something that made us realize we had to change our plans." Sage's eyes filled with unshed tears, a tremulous smile on her lips. "Finn still loves me."

Chloe stared between Sage and the memory of Finn before she took in a deep breath. "Let's just hope that fact doesn't get Alaric killed."

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**TBC**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: Don't own Smallville/Vampire Diaries/Supernatural**

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"So, is Damon still not talking to you for keeping it a secret that Katherine was the one who informed the Originals about you and your abilities?" Lois' voice reached her on the other side of the expensive dressing room stall.

Chloe took in a deep breath. "Yeah."

"For the record, I'm not too happy about that either." Material could be heard shifting. "What were you thinking, really? Protecting her like that?"

"I wasn't _protecting_ her." Chloe eyed her dress choice and made a face. "We needed Katherine, and we weren't going to get the information and such that was needed if she was dead."

"Now that she's desiccating in the dungeon she's not giving up any information either." It would seem that Lois was not on Chloe's side. "Damon seems to enjoy the bleeding her dry and breaking her neck over and over part _way_ too much."

"He's venting. He has anger management issues." Chloe licked her lips. "His brother and best friend have been kidnapped, his ex girlfriend is somewhat to blame, and I kept it from him. He's got it coming from all angles."

"You defend him and his psycho-killer tendencies too much."

"I'm not defending him." Chloe frowned at her reflection. "I just get why he's the way he is. And this whole Originals ball thing can't be helping him-especially since he's not going and is on Katherine-sitting duty with Sage."

Lois huffed before she paused. "We're doing this all very last minute, aren't we? I mean, the ball's in what-four hours? And we're only _now_ looking at dresses?"

Chloe smirked at her reflection. "How hard can it be to find decent dresses?"

Lois snickered from the other side of the wall. "You have never been to these hollywood affairs. I've been to a couple on John's arm. They're _crah-zay_ fierce. Come in the wrong _color_ and you won't be allowed to forget it." She gave a little whimper. "I heard Joan Rivers was going to be doing a special Fashion Police on the "Mikaelson Gala", which is, by the way, the official name for the "Original Ball", as you keep calling it."

"Gala, huh?" Chloe made a face.

"Yep." There was another pause. "I heard you got the pitch today when you came to pick me up."

"The pitch?" Chloe frowned and then she blinked. "Oh, right! With the _gala_ tonight it kinda wasn't a big deal." She stepped out of the dress and threw it over the door of the stall, not happy with it and going to try the other one. "Yeah, apparently the writers _do_ want me back for a mini arc they have planned and they pitched the idea quickly while you were in makeup getting all the fake blood and stuff removed. It seemed interesting enough I suppose. I told them I'd think about it mostly so they'd just leave me alone."

Lois snickered. "You've signed your own death certificate by not telling them 'no' outright."

Chloe rolled her eyes as she shimmied into the next dress. "It can't be that bad."

"It's horrible." Lois groaned. "I hate these dresses."

Chloe made a face at her reflection. "I look like a pumpkin, and not even in a cute, ironic, Halloweeney way considering the ones hosting this thing are vampires."

"John's going to be at the gala." Lois' voice went soft. "Asked if I would save a dance for him."

Chloe raised an eyebrow and turned her gaze towards the wall between them. "What did you say to that?"

"I told him I was over him and had my eyes set on Kol Mikaelson." Lois didn't sound proud of that. "I was pissed off and that whopper just came blurting out." She sighed. "It's just-_Ruby_? _Really_? Just how bad taste can a guy have? I mean really?"

Chloe sighed as she rested her hand on the divider between them. "I'm so sorry, hon. You didn't deserve something like that to happen to you."

"I don't know, maybe I did." Lois' voice was a sigh before she took in a deep breath. "This dress is even worse. Lana would love it though." She made an odd noise. "What do you think of Sage?"

Chloe raised an eyebrow. "Lois, I'll love you no matter who you sleep with."

"While that makes me happy to hear, I meant: can we trust her now that she knows that Original-sire-guy still has the hots for her?" Lois sounded like this was something she'd been giving a lot of thought to. "What if he asks her to betray us all? Why wouldn't she?"

Why wouldn't she indeed?

"Sadly, there's not many people we can truly say we _can_ trust a hundred per cent." Chloe eyed her reflection in the mirror critically as she tried on another gown. "I mean, those Original guys seem to know who we are and what we're doing." She shimmied out of the dress. "They always seem to be a step ahead of us."

There was a knock on the stall she was in. "Miss Sullivan? A handsome young man just dropped off two gowns for you and Miss Lane and said you were to wear them at the gala."

Chloe blinked and unlocked the expensive stall's door, turning to look at the attendant, who could be a supermodel, she was that pretty. "What?"

Lois stuck her own head out of her stall, eyes wide. "Did I just hear what I think I just heard?"

"Isn't it wonderful? You have your gowns hand-delivered to you, chosen by the King of Vampires himself. You are so incredibly blessed." The attendant stood there, smiling blankly in Compulsion. "The messenger insisted that Mr Mikaelson would have it no other way. You _must_ wear these gowns to the gala."

Chloe and Lois shared looks.

Lois stepped out in only her underwear, a sigh on her lips. "Well, it's not as if we were getting anywhere with what we found here." She anchored her hands to her hips. "Let's see if the bloodsuckers got my size right."

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"Isn't this taking your temper tantrum a little _far_?" Katherine's voice grated his nerves from her place in the highly-sophisticated cell this safe-house of Chloe's had. "I only did what I had to do to try and get _my_ family back."

Damon leaned hard against the wall and wondered when Sage would arrive to take over guard-duty. If she didn't do so soon he'd probably stake Katherine and be over with it. He was tempted to do so anyway. In fact, he couldn't really remember _why_ he hadn't done so already. His brother and best friend were kidnapped and being held hostage by the Original Bastards (probably being subjected to all sorts of horrible tortures) and his girl was not only going to be walking into an obvious trap with a trio of _humans_ as her shields (Lois being her best protection in his mind-not that he'd ever tell the cousin that), but she'd lied (by omission) to him about Katherine's involvement in everything. So Damon's usually 'not-nice' mood was seriously worse right now and Katherine really shouldn't be pushing it considering she was at the epicenter of it all and Damon had no problem blaming her for everything wrong in the universe, including Global Warming. If he looked hard enough, he was sure he could find a way to blame it on her. She was old enough, he was sure she could have contributed _somehow_.

"Damon, I'm _hungry_." Katherine leaned hard against the wall. "If I don't have something to eat I'll desiccate and become the thing you fought for decades to save me from."

"You keep forgetting that's not a selling point with me." Damon rolled his eyes. "Just reminds me of what a monumental _bitch_ you are."

Katherine groaned as she looked up at the ceiling. "I get it, you have mommy-issues. I have daddy-issues, we _all_ have issues Damon! Get over them already and get me some blood! I'm drying up here!"

"No." He turned to face her finally.

Katherine glared at him. "You're being childish."

"Maybe." The corner of his lips tilted in a half-smirk. "About time _I_ had a little fun around here."

Katherine stood and zoomed towards the door, grabbing the bars, proving she wasn't half as weak as she'd have him believe, her eyes going bloody with her anger. Her fangs descended as she snapped them at him. "I'm trying to _help_ you!"

"Oh, are you?" His half-smirk turned into a sneer. "This is gonna be good." He folded his arms over his chest. "And _how_ are you trying to help me?"

Katherine glared at him as she tightened her grip on the bars. "I was trying to separate the three of you for my own reasons, yes, that's true, but I was also wanted to do it for you, because you were falling in love with someone who was _not_ in love with you and _you know it_."

Damon's sneering superiority began to slip slightly.

"I might have been a bitch and left you guys to learn to be vampires on your own, let you believe I was dead, but that doesn't mean that I didn't keep an eye on you throughout the centuries to make sure that you were okay. I looked out for the two of you in my own way, in the shadows, without you two ever knowing because that is what family does." Katherine glared up at Damon. "And when I realized that you were falling in love with her I knew that I had to do what I had to do to separate you from her because she is in love with the Winchesters. Everyone knows that. She was with you because she was turned and you were showing her how to be a functioning vampire, and the relationship you began is a normal relationship by our standards, but _the whole world_ knows that "Schlean" is the Endgame and "Chlalvatore" doesn't even register on the Richter Scale."

Damon forced his features into a light smirk as he snorted. "Old age must be messing with your mind, Katherine, because I don't "do" falling in love. That was the human me."

Katherine smirked as she tilted her head to her side. "You might have everyone else here, including Chloe, fooled into thinking that you're some rogue Casanova who doesn't want to settle down ever or who doesn't even remember the definition of "True Love", but don't think you've got _me_ fooled. I've known you since you were a human, and Damon, you love more and greater than anyone else I've ever known, even more than Stefan. When you love, you give yourself fully and completely to the other person, no matter who or _what_ they are, or what baggage or issues they bring. You accept them wholeheartedly because your love is _that_ strong. It's why you _fight_ loving someone, because if you lose that person, like you thought you lost me, it'll destroy you." She let out a disgusted sigh. "If I had been able to love just _you_ things would have been different now."

Damon hated her at that moment, wanted to kill her.

He surged forwards.

Katherine pulled away, out of his reach, eyebrows high. "I see I've struck a nerve."

"I'm just sick of hearing your annoying voice."

She shook her head. "You're falling in love with her, and for a while you thought you and Stefan could keep her, but by being back in Hollywood you realize that this is her life, and that she's reintegrating herself into it, and it's a life you'd never want." Katherine eyed him in pity. "Damon, I was trying to help you, I _still am_." She leaned back against the wall. "Let go of her while you still can." She slid down the wall to the ground tiredly. "Even if things work out and you somehow keep the Originals away from Chloe, you're gonna lose her to the Winchesters, to Lois, to _her old life_, just like you always knew that you would." Katherine closed her eyes. "_I'm so hungry_."

Damon's fists were clenched tightly and shaking in fury and…

"Everything okay here?"

He turned to see Sage standing at the top of the stairs, eyebrow raised. "What took you so long?"

"I had to help Chloe and Lois with their gowns and hair, you wouldn't understand how long that takes." She rolled her eyes as she descended the stairs. "The boys have just pulled up to get them. "I feel like a mom about to have her daughters taken to their proms."

Katherine snickered from the cell.

"You can probably catch them and say goodbye, you know-_speak_ to Chloe?-before they go if you hurry." Sage motioned with her head to the top of the stairs as she cleared the last step.

"I don't need you to tell me what to do." And yet he moved towards the stairs and up the steps, annoyed with himself as he did so, pushing the door open and making it to the lobby in time for Lois to appear.

"How's the Petite Pest?" Lois wanted to know, fussing with a turquoise, silk shawl which matched the lower part of her dress.

"Annoying, still." Damon eyed the cousin up and down. "You don't clean up too badly."

Lois looked up at that and snorted in amusement. "A halfway compliment from you. Is it raining frogs outside?"

He rolled his eyes. "Where's Chloe?"

Lois looked behind her. "Probably trying to get the courage to come out. She's not too happy with her dress. It's kinda like mine, it's still a mermaid style, but unlike mine which is a halter style with jewel-embedded top, hers is-well-you'll see what hers is."

He wasn't a man who really gave a damn about what women were wearing (more interested in taking it off, really) but Damon had to admit he was somewhat curious after that comment.

Movement up ahead caught his attention and Damon's eyes widened as Chloe appeared.

She was clearly uncomfortable, Lois hadn't been lying about that, but Damon couldn't figure out why she was so uncomfortable given the fact that she looked so amazing. The dress was the color of freshly drawn blood that contrasted against Chloe's pale skin, and was the most arousing thing he'd ever seen just because it reminded him of how many time he'd drawn her blood and the activities he'd been doing while drawing her blood. The gown was strapless and seemed to have been made to her measurements, fitting her breasts, waist and hips like a tight glove before spreading out loosely around her thighs down to her feet. Her gown wasn't jewel-embedded like Lois', but instead she wore and extremely beautiful and expensive diamond earring and necklace set, the diamonds on the necklace very large and beautifully cut. All in all, Chloe looked like some sort of porcelain doll.

Chloe's eyes widened when she noticed him. "_Damon_."

He cleared his throat, pulled from his trance. "And you didn't think you'd find halfway decent dresses in such a short time." He snorted as he shucked his hands into his jacket's pockets, suddenly uncomfortable. "Women, they just like an excuse to shop for days."

Chloe and Lois shared looks.

He frowned as he noticed it. "What?"

Chloe licked her lips. "These aren't from the store."

Damon eyes the girls in question. "These are your old dresses then?"

Lois snorted as she played with a jewel-encrusted bracelet. "As if. We're not rich."

He was beginning to feel uneasy. "Did the Wonder Twins-."

"Did we what?" Dean wanted to know as he sauntered into the place as if he owned it and then froze when he saw the girls. "Wow."

Sam entered behind him and did the same. "You two look amazing."

Damon frowned. "So if the Wonder Twins didn't give you the dresses and bling-." He then froze as a dark thought entered his mind and he turned to Chloe. "Tell me they're not from where I think they're from."

Chloe licked her lips and reached into her bosom, pulling out a folded up piece of paper she'd stuck in there before handing it to Damon. "It's another requirement."

"What are we missing?" Dean wanted to know.

Damon ignored him as he unfolded the paper and read it out loud. "Dear Miss Sullivan, I simply must insist you and Miss Lane grant me the honor of wearing these to my little getogether tonight. I also request that you reserve a dance for me on your card, and a stroll around the gardens, which are beautiful under the moonlight. We have much to talk about. - Niklaus Mikaelson." Damon crumpled the paper in his hands. "That's _it_. You are _not_ going to this damn dance."

Chloe's eyes widened. "I beg your pardon?"

"He's trying to _sleep_ with you!"

"He's trying to seduce me, completely different." CHloe rolled her eyes.

Damon's widened. "_How is that different_?"

"Because he's not trying to seduce me into his bed. He's trying to seduce me into his service. As his Compulsion Agent." Chloe took in a deep breath. "That means he's not trying to force me-yet. And that means I'm going to be civil with him and talk to him and at least listen to him. That will not only give us the whole picture of what we're up against, but I'll talk to him about Stefan and Alaric, and it might buy us some time."

Damon opened his mouth.

"You know I'm right." Chloe narrowed her eyes at him. "We don't know what they're doing to Stef or Ric right now. We _have_ to go."

"Then I'm coming too." Damon glared. "Sage is more than enough to take care of Katherine."

"You don't have an invitation." Chloe sighed. "You can't come."

"_Actually_…" Sam cleared his throat. "I've been thinking about this, and there might be a way."

"Sammy?" Dean turned to look at him with a frown. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Shut up Dean." Damon eyed Sam. "Sammy's talking."

Sam sighed. "Dean, no matter how bluntly he puts it, Damon's right. We're only human, and we're going to be going into what could be a trap, up against Original Vampires. It would be good to have Damon there."

"Speak for yourself." Dean sneered.

Sam turned to Damon. "If you can not make a spectacle of yourself and limit your witty remarks for the night, I think we can get you in."

"It might be possible." Damon decided not to take offense to Sam's words for now because the human was on his side. "But how?"

Sam smirked. "As Bela's date."

Dean suddenly smirked as well.

Lois smacked her face. "Bela's going too?"

"Bela Talbot?" Chloe asked in confusion. "The actress whose character steals cursed objects on Paranormal?"

"Yeah." Sam nodded. "She doesn't have a date so it would solve two problems." He raised his phone. "I, uh, actually already told her Damon would do it since I knew he'd cause a scene and want to go." He motioned to Damon. "I have a tuxedo in the car for you to change into. I know you don't like tuxedos but you'll have to deal with it because otherwise they won't let you into the event, the dress-code for men is tuxedo-only."

Damon eyed Sam, uneasy with the realization that he didn't quite hate this human.

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Bela Talbot brought a lot of herself to the character she played on Paranormal, and Chloe found that she quite liked her. She hadn't met her during her few visits to the Paranormal set (probably because Bela only guest starred in some episodes) but Bela acted as if she'd known Chloe her whole life and was easy to get along with. She also had an appealing scent, something Chloe hadn't really noticed about other humans before, and Damon noticed and spent most of the ride smirking at her knowingly and had even complimented Bela on her perfume. It annoyed Chloe because she knew_ Damon knew_ why Bela smelt good and was enjoying Chloe not knowing while he did. But at least Bela's ability to say and do things that made Sam and Dean extremely uncomfortable kept Chloe amused and distracted the whole drive to the ball-_gala_-and she kept the glaring at a smirking Damon down to a minimum, or at least she tried.

But what admittedly distracted Chloe, what blew her away, was when they finally arrived at the castle that the Originals were using for the occasion. Chloe had no idea what building this was, but it was gorgeous. There was a long royal-purple carpet leading towards the entrance of the building, and select paparazzi lined the sidelines, taking pictures of the various celebrities and A-listers, asking questions. She felt completely out of her depth when she saw George Clooney up ahead with his flavor of the week, but when Sam squeezed the hand he looped around his arm, she looked up at him and smiled.

Bela arrived at her side, smiling at everyone and waving as they took pictures, her voice low as she spoke to Chloe. "Just smile and wave and give them what they want. Don't let them know you're nervous or they'll hound you hoping you'll trip or give them something they can use against you."

Chloe nodded, grateful.

Bela turned her smirk up to Damon as she looped her arm around his. "Come now, handsome devil. Let's go create scandalous gossip and maybe even do something that could cause someone to faint!"

Damon sent Chloe a darkly amused look before he returned his blues to Bela and smirked. "I like how you think."

And with that they headed down the purple carpet first.

Dean frowned as he watched them go. "I think we started a monstrous friendship by introducing those two."

"I know." Lois looked just as worried.

Sam's lips twitched in dark amusement.

Dean sighed and turned to Lois. "Let's get this over with."

Lois whimpered. "Joan Rivers is watching us."

Dean flinched. "Oh god."

They plastered on fake smiles and yet were both walking stiffly enough as if they were marching towards their deaths.

Chloe held on tightly to Sam's arm as she looked at the flashing lights and the people asking questions, the girl admittedly terrified. These people stood between her and the castle-like building in which the gala was being held, where the Originals, and Stefan and Ric, and _her answers_, were. "I can do this."

Sam rubbed her hand comfortingly. "You'll be fine. If you get too nervous, just squeeze my hand as tightly as you can."

"I'm a vampire, I'll break your hand if I do that."

"Right." He blinked. "Just… imagine them in their underwear?"

Chloe made a face. "Why do people say that? Does that really work for you?"

Sam sighed. "Not really. Then again, I've never actually had stage fright or anything like that. Sorry."

She took in a deep breath before shaking her head. "No, you're trying to help, and I appreciate it." She gave him a small smile. "I'll be fine. If I get nervous I'll squeeze your hand-moderately."

He cracked a grin. "That sounds reasonable."

"If that doesn't work," a surprising voice announced behind them. "You can always just give her a sip of something stronger to calm the nerves. I have Scotch on me right now if you want a sip before you go out there. Everyone's eyeing Clooney so I'm sure no one will even notice."

Chloe twirled around, eyes widened in shock as they fell upon the roguishly handsome man standing there with a woman on each arm. "_Bruce_?"

Bruce Wayne gave her a small smile. "Hello Chloe."

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**TBC**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: Don't own Smallville/Supernatural/Vampire Diaries**

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Zatanna Zatara reached out and hugged Chloe tightly, her voice sad and soft enough that only Chloe could hear it with her vampiric abilities. "_Oh Chlo, why didn't you tell us? Everything makes so much sense now."_

Chloe pulled away, confused, but then her eyes widened as she stared into Zatanna's sad blues and realized that the magician knew. She didn't understand _how_ Zatanna knew that she was a vampire, but somehow she _knew_, and that shocked Chloe more than seeing Bruce Wayne again.

It didn't seem like Zatanna was going to tell anyone about her secret though, the magician instead forcing a smile on her face as she eyed the blonde. "You look beautiful Chloe."

Chloe couldn't fake a smile as well as the magician. "Thank you... you do as well."

"Hello Chloe," Dinah smiled at her. "It's good to see you."

"It's good to see you too." The vampire tightened her grip on Sam. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine, thank you." Dinah cleared her throat. "I've wanted to talk to you for a while, to clear the air between us. I know now isn't a good time, but I just-I want you to know that there's no weirdness coming from my side of the fence concerning Ollie. You and I were friends before he and I-well-you know."

Chloe eyed Dinah thoughtfully. They'd never been close friends but they'd respected each other, and she could respect the way that Dinah was conducting herself right now. It was very mature of her, and Chloe's smile was genuine as she nodded. "We'll have to have coffee sometime."

Dinah smiled and nodded. "Definitely, when we're not, you know…" She tapped her wrist to indicate that they were on the clock, something Chloe had guessed considering that Dinah and Zatanna were both dressed as Bruce's usual model accessories and clinging onto him like said models would as well. The girls were obviously here to help him do recon on the Originals and infiltrate the place for the JL. Ollie mustn't have gotten an invitation, which must have _burnt_ his ego badly.

"Where are my manners?" Chloe's eyes widened when she noticed Zatanna eyeing Sam oddly. "Sam Winchester, I'd like to introduce you to my friends Bruce Wayne, Zatanna Zatara and Dinah Lance." She looped her arm around his as he shook their hands. "Guys, meet Sam Winchester, my date."

"Oh, we know him." Dinah's lips twitched in amusement. "We watch Paranormal."

"And Supernatural Diaries." Zatanna grinned.

Bruce merely shook Sam's hand firmly.

"No offense, but we officially hate your father." Zatanna informed Sam. "Lois might be highly annoying most of the time, but she's still our friend."

Sam nodded. "She's our friend as well."

Someone cleared his throat. "Mr Winchester? Miss Sullivan? It's your turn. Please. Walk this way."

Chloe turned to face Sam and groaned as she tightened her grip on his arm. "Time to face the music I suppose."

"It'll be alright, just smile and answer their questions without losing your cool and everything will be alright," Sam whispered into her ear before he led her onto the purple carpet. Immediately blinding lights flashed as questions were thrown at them from every angle.

_ "Are you officially a couple?"_

_ "What about those two guys you were with before?"_

_ "What does Dean think about you two together?"_

_ "Are Lois and Dean rebounding with each other?"_

_ "Chloe! How are you enjoying being back in Hollywood?"_

_ "Sam! What's it like being the brother who has her on his arm?"_

_ "What's going on with Supernatural Diaries?"_

_ "Look over here Chloe!"_

_ "Over here!"_

_ "Sam! Sam!"_

_ "Are you good friends with the Originals?"_

Chloe merely smiled and waved, so out of her element it was ridiculous. She was the one who was used to asking questions, not to being _asked_ them. Sam was used to this life and it showed. She wondered if her utter discomfort showed as much as his ease did.

Sam leaned into her, his breath agains her ear. "We have to stop over there by the Fashion Police. It's in our agreement. It's one of our obligated stops. We'll answer a few questions, laugh at some of Joan's inappropriate comments, and be off."

"Oh god."

Sam chuckled as he led her towards to where Joan Rivers was waiting on them, a terrifying gleam in her eyes. "Hello Joan."

"If I was ten years younger..." Joan shook her head before turning her gaze on Chloe. "Just _look_ at you. You look gorgeous."

"Thank you." Chloe smiled, breathless and terrified.

This was the woman that Lois had nightmares about.

"Tell me dear, who are you wearing?"

Chloe blanked, eyes wide. "I-have no idea."

Joan's eyes widened in horror. "How can you not know?"

Chloe gazed down at herself before her gaze turned to Joan. "Well, you see, this whole ensemble was presented to me an hour or so ago and I was asked to wear it tonight. So you'll have to forgive me."

"Ooooh. A mystery." Joan's eyes widened. "And _who_ gave you this _gorgeous_ dress and jewelry?" Her gaze went to Sam. "Do we have _you_ to thank for making her look like some sort of doll?"

Sam played his part like a pro, shaking his head. "I have to admit that it's not me, another man is at fault here."

Joan's eyes were as wide as saucers. "The intrigue grows!" She turned to Sam. "Was it _Dean?"_

Sam snorted on live television. "Definitely not!"

Chloe thought she was helping, but she only made matters so much worse for herself. "The person who was so kind to lend me this whole ensemble for the night was none other than our host."

Joan's mouth _fell open_ on live television before she nudged Sam and snickered to the cameras. "This is going to get interesting, Joan Rangers, I'm going in deep." She saluted the cameras before turning back to Chloe. "You simply _must_ come to Fashion Police some time and give us a firsthand account of the gala."

Chloe's eyes widened in horror. "I'm sure there are t-tons of people who could give better-."

"It has to be you." Joan's smile was pure evil. "And I won't take no for an answer." She turned to the cameras filming her. "It's settled! Chloe Sullivan of the Supernatural Diaries fame will be joining us on a special Fashion Police to discuss the events of tonight's gala!" She turned back to Chloe and grinned. "It'll be so much fun!"

Chloe let out a stuttered breath and shaky smile. "I'm sure it will."

Sam held her tightly. "We can't keep hogging you like this Joan, we have to share you with the others. It was great talking to you."

"With you too hotstuff." Joan grinned, her night obviously made.

Chloe walked away, the rest of the walk through the purple-carpet a blur. She knew that she answered questions and took pictures with other people who weren't Sam, but what she said and who those people were she couldn't swear on her life.

What finally brought the blonde into the present was once they reached the doors of the castle-like building and a chamberlain announced their names, Sam and Chloe sharing a little look before another set of doors opened to reveal the ballroom within. Chloe's eyes widened and she tightened her grip on Sam's arm as he led her down the large staircase. She could feel so many eyes on her, some of those gazes hidden behind masks. The blonde wondered why they found them so interesting. Sure, she knew that Sam was a good actor and she was an enigma given the fact that she'd disappeared for a year, but there were some serious A-listers at this party! They should be the ones getting the attention, not Sam and her!

Sam must've sensed her mounting discomfort under everyone's gaze, because he discreetly stroked her fingertips comfortingly.

Chloe's gaze moved to him gratefully, her lips tilting in a small smile, before she took in a deep breath and faced the crowd once more, head held high.

They finally reached the bottom of the majestic stairway and Bruce and his "companions" were announced, allowing Sam and Chloe a moment's reprieve as some of the attention was drawn to the 'ever-scandalous' Bruce Wayne.

Chloe didn't notice, her eyes wide, the girl captivated by the magical atmosphere cast by the almost fairy-tale-like interior of the castle. It wasn't cheesy, somehow seeming so incredibly genuine, as if they'd stepped into Cinderella, or some other story in which a ball was taking place and a prince was in search of his bride or something of the sort. The fact that the Originals were alive during the time of balls no doubt helped make everything remain authentic to the time-period, and it fascinated her even more. If it wasn't for the fact that Stefan and Alaric might be in some dungeon somewhere beaten and bruised, Chloe might be enchanted and forget all about the mission and just lose herself to the utter, undeniable charm. These Originals were classy.

Sam squeezed her fingertips, drawing her from her thoughts. "How about a dance? I'm sure Niklaus will make himself known to you when he wants to speak."

He was probably right, and while Chloe wanted nothing more than to seek Klaus out and get this over with, she knew it was better to play things smartly. If she did anything to anger Klaus, Stefan and Alaric would be the ones to suffer most. It was why she merely nodded and gave Sam a playful smile. "I'm not versed in all things dance like Dean is, I'll step on your toes."

Sam's eyes flashed with mirth. "I'll tell him you said that, it'll horrify him to no end that you think that about him."

Chloe laughed as Sam dragged her out towards the dance floor.

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Damon's grip on his glass tightened as he watched Chloe laughing as she danced her third dance straight with Sam Winchester.

He'd changed his mind after the second dance. He _hated_ this human. He hated him _a lot_.

"You know, you wear your expressions on your face." His date's voice was darkly amused. "And when I say your 'expression', I mean your murderous intentions."

He ignored that as he downed his drink, stole another from a passing waiter, and put his empty glass on the tray.

"You're amusing." Bela Talbot nursed the same drink she'd had since they'd arrived, her eyes sharp. "I have to admit that I was a little disappointed when I realized that you were interested in Chloe and thus not on the menu, but considering that you've provided nothing but entertainment for me I've forgiven you." She took a small sip of her champagne, lips curled. "How about I declare myself Team Damon?"

"What?" He finally turned towards her.

"You know? Team? Most of the world is Team Dean or Team Sam-especially after tonight-or Team Schlean. I'll be Team Damon. I'll be your cheerleader-if only because you amuse me." She took another sip. "And because you desperately need my help."

He sneered. "I don't need-."

"Oh please, you're hot enough to melt butter, but you're obviously out of place here. Anyone can see you don't belong." Bela raised an eyebrow, direct as a stake to the heart. "What does that say about your future considering that this is her world and she's going to be attending more and more of these things?"

"Says _who_?" Damon made a face. "She's not a fucking actress. She _was_ a journalist. How I remember it, they're usually behind the scene."

Bela snickered. "Oh honey, those days are over for her. She was already reaching mini-stardom status before the Winchesters showed up, she had a huge following and was basically a cult favorite. And once Supernatural Diaries hit that was it. Her life _behind_ the scenes were gone. This is the natural progression and she knows it, it's why she's considering starring in a mini arc in Paranormal. It's basically a done deal."

Damon frowned. "What?"

"Oh, she didn't tell you?" Bela tilted her head to the side. "The writers are peeing themselves with excitement. It'll bring up the rating to a soaring high, and to be honest I think it'd be cool. I was a fan of Chloe & The Dead People so I'd like to have the opportunity to be in an episode with her-if they don't kill my character off before she guest stars of course."

Damon frowned darker, gaze going to where Chloe and Sam were dancing yet another dance together next to Dean and Lois on the dance floor.

"They look good, don't they?" Bela motioned towards the four of them. "You see, in the eyes of Hollywood, they would make sense." Her gaze slid towards Damon. "You and your brother though? Not so much." She pursed her lips. "Unless you _make_ yourselves make sense."

"I don't fucking care about what Hollywood or anyone thinks." He glared as he sidled a look in her direction. "Why do _you_?"

"I don't. But I'm eternally bored when not shooting my scenes for Paranormal." Bela let out a sigh. "Plus, I have a ridiculous amount of time on my hands." She brightened. "_And_ I like a challenge." The brunette with blonde highlights eyed Damon. "You'd be a challenge."

Dean and Sam switched dance partners, Dean stealing Chloe and whisking her away with a smirk to his brother, the blonde's giggle reaching Damon as she was twirled around by the laughing older Winchester.

Damon clenched his fist and finished his latest drink with one gulp.

Bela eyed him with dark amusement. "Why don't you just wait for the dance to end and cut in?"

Damon tore his gaze from them as Dean did some fancy dance move that had Chloe laughing, visibly impressed, the vampire turning his glare on Bela. "Why the hell would I do that?"

Bela, damn her, kept looking more and more amused. "Because you look like you're about to explode?"

"Don't know what you're talking about." Damon grabbed her glass from her, finished it, and then put their empty glasses in the hands of some mopey-looking young woman who'd been standing next to them. "Here. You hold this for us." He then turned to Bela as the dark haired woman sputtered in indignation at him. "Let's dance."

Bela snickered in dark amusement. "I'm so sorry, Kristen, I can't take him anywhere!" And with that, and a snort of laughter, she followed Damon onto the dance floor. "I am _so_ Team Damon!"

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Chloe had been enjoying herself, she _had_, but she had also been keeping an eye around as well and had realized that unless they were wearing masks, the Originals were not amongst those in the gala. Maybe they were waiting for all of the guests to arrive before making their grand entrance. It would make sense. She could see them doing something grand like that to make a show of their entrance and remind the guests that the Mikaelson family were the reason why everyone was there.

"Mind if I cut in?" A voice asked as the music drew to an end.

Chloe gazed over her shoulder, eyes wide as she saw Bruce once more.

Dean, who hadn't met Bruce, frowned. "Sure."

Chloe turned and placed her hand into Bruce's, a small smile on her lips as he drew her into his arms and into the mass of bodies as the orchestra began to play the next piece of music. "Zatanna and Dinah mingling?"

"They're charming the susceptible males." Bruce's lips twitched. "It's part of the reason I brought them along."

"I was wondering why they were here and not Helena and Barbara," Chloe admitted.

"Considering Zatanna and Dinah's… _talents_… we figured that it was better that they join me. Especially Zatanna." Bruce had always been the most elegant dancer Chloe had ever had the pleasure of dancing with, and he still was as he led her expertly. "Zatanna was right, you look beautiful, Chloe."

She ducked her gaze and smiled up at him, somewhat embarrassed. "I feel like I'm playing dress up."

"Nonsense." Bruce shook his head. "I'm not Oliver, I don't give compliments just to give them."

She thought that one over and then smiled. "True. Thank you."

He smiled and gave her a little dip. "You're welcome."

Chloe laughed softly. "I don't think we're supposed to dip in this sort of dance."

"Where's the fun in it if we don't rebel a little?" Bruce's eyes twinkled as he straightened them before his expression went grave. "Are you okay, Chloe?"

She frowned slightly. "Why do you ask?"

He eyed her thoughtfully. "I don't know. Something seems different about you."

She fought the urge to gulp, and instead smiled at him. "I'm fine, Bruce. But thank you for worrying."

"Old habits die hard."

Her smile was genuine this time. "It's so good to be able to talk to you after all this time-I shouldn't have ran the way I did-I've missed your friendship more than I realized."

He nodded, gaze sweeping away for a second before returning to her. "And I yours."

"So…" She raised an eyebrow, her lips twisted in a teasing smile. "Just how offended _was_ Oliver that Bruce Wayne got an invite and Oliver Queen didn't?"

Bruce snorted in amusement, and that was a big deal for the usually sombre man. "_Very_."

"He's taking it personally, isn't he?" Chloe chuckled.

Bruce nodded. "He's taking comfort in the thought that he wasn't invited because Niklaus Mikaelson was afraid he couldn't compete with his handsome face."

Chloe was the one who snorted in amusement this time. "I see Oliver has not changed."

"Sadly."

Chloe slapped Bruce's shoulder playfully with a giggle.

The multi-billionaire merely smirked in amusement.

Suddenly the music stopped, as did the dancing as everyone looked around, trying to understand what was going on.

"Welcome." A voice brought everyone's attention towards the majestic staircase, upon which now a group of regally dressed people stood, at the top step Niklaus Mikaelson smiled. "It is an honor for us to have you here with us tonight as we celebrate."

Chloe's eyes widened, her gaze drawn to Stefan and Alaric, who were dressed in tuxedos and were on the arms of a bored-looking Rebekah Mikaelson. "Well, I didn't see that coming."

"When my brothers and I made the decision to come out to the world you opened your arms to us and welcomed us wholeheartedly," Klaus smiled charmingly, a flute of champagne in his hand as human waiters moved around the crowd handing out champagne to the guests. "Let tonight be the first of many in which we thank you for the trust you've place in us." He raised the flute of champagne once everyone had one in their hands. "To the future."

"To the future!" Everyone cheered as they raised their flutes and drank.

Chloe held her flute in her hand, gaze on Niklaus Mikaelson.

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Lois kept sending Alaric little looks, and she'd caught his gaze a couple of times, her silent question answered by his nod that he was fine. He could be just telling her that to make her feel better though, so that she wouldn't worry. It wasn't that Lois doubted that Ric could take care of himself, but he was only human, and he was basically an accessory on Rebekah Mikaelson's arm, just like Stefan. Who knew what in the world had happened in the moments in between them being hostages to being her _pets_?

Frown growing deeper, Lois clenched her hand tighter around her flute of champagne as she watched Rebekah order Stefan to get her something from the refreshments table before ordering Alaric to dance with her.

So far the Originals hadn't made their move and had just integrated themselves into the revelry, and this was making Lois itch.

"So, what exactly about my sister is it that you disapprove so highly of?" A voice asked curiously behind her.

Lois twirled around to see none other than Kol Mikaelson behind her. She raised an eyebrow, casting her gaze around her to find where Dean was considering he'd just gone to search for the bathroom, but then she realized this was a good opportunity and her gaze turned to the Original. "Maybe not your sister in particular, but causing an accident, hurting innocent people, _and_ taking them hostage and forcing them to be your dates just seems tacky."

Kol's lips twitched. "Is that so?"

"I know you lived through the 1600s, but this isn't the Abduction Club. You can't just find prospective grooms for your sister like that."

He chuckled as his gaze went to where Rebekah raised an eyebrow at something Alaric was saying to her as they moved towards the dance floor. "I don't know. My sister has always had a thing for vampire hunters."

A muscle jumped in Lois' cheek. "How has that worked out for her in the past?"

Kol thought about it for a second. "Not that great, actually."

"Gees, wonder why."

His smirk grew, his eyes twinkling. "Do you miss being in the _real_ supernatural realm and not merely playing it on the television?" He tilted his head. "Don't get me wrong, I enjoy being able to see you every Tuesday night, but I feel that you're wasted on something like Paranormal."

Lois raised an eyebrow, a little confused since she'd thought he was a fan of the show. "And what do you think I'd be better doing? Working for your brother?"

Surprisingly enough, Kol's expression darkened and his smile dropped as he took in a long gulp of his champagne, gaze going to where Klaus was apparently charming the pants off of both Julia Roberts and her husband, before his gaze returned to Lois. "Call me a purist, but I preferred the days of your blurry pictures and investigations for Chloe & The Dead People to your current acting career." His smile returned, this time terribly taunting. "Have you taken any photography lessons since then? Because to be honest, some of your pictures were dreadfully out of focus."

Lois' eyes widened, the brunette admittedly caught off guard and more than a little insulted, a gasp escaping her parted lips. "_You_ try taking pictures while in horrible lighting of creatures as they're trying to tear your face off and _then_ come bitching to me about my photography skills!"

He chuckled and took another, more leisurely, sip of his champagne. "You have yet to answer my question."

Lois took a sip of her own drink as she eyed him thoughtfully, wondering what his angle was with all of this. "That's really none of your business."

His eyes said he could tell she did.

Her annoyance with him grew. "I will not be persuaded to help you or your brother convince my cousin of anything, so if that was why you came here you can shove off, mister."

"Please, I'm offended. That is far from the reason I came to speak to you," Kol snorted as he finished his champagne and placed his empty flute onto the tray of passing waiter before turning to offer her his hand, back bowed slightly, lips twitched. "I've come to ask you to dance with me."

Lois eyed the hand he offered her, eyes narrowed. "Fine." She downed the rest of her champagne and put down the empty flute on the tray of the waiter who'd stopped to wait for her after Kol had put down his glass. "But only because you're ancient and my parents taught me to be nice to old people."

"I'll show you ancient!" Kol snickered as his hand clasped hers and he swept her easily onto the dance floor.

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"So you're her personal waiter now?"

Holding the flute of champagne that he'd been ordered to bring Rebekah, Stefan sighed as he turned towards his brother. "Something like that."

Damon frowned as he drew closer. "Why didn't you tell us that you knew these Original douches?"

Stefan frowned in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Damon eyed him thoughtfully before he sighed as turned to look at the dance floor. "It's what I thought. King Douche must have Compelled you to forget the fact that you and he were bosom buddies."

This was just too much for him, and Stefan took a long gulp of the champagne he was supposed to be taking to Rebekah. "Things are slowly starting to make sense."

"For you, maybe." Damon frowned. "Katherine's the one who sold Chloe out, by the way."

Eyes widening, Stefan turned his head towards his brother. "_What_?"

"Oh, and it gets better." Damon gave a dark laugh. "Chloe _knew_ and didn't tell us."

Stefan finished the champagne. "Katherine still alive?"

"She's desiccating." A muscle jumped in Damon's cheek.

"Good." Stefan tightened his grip on his empty flute. "I'm gonna kill her."

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Bruce had returned to Zatanna and Dinah, Sam was still with Dean and Bela at the bar having some drinks, Lois was dancing with Kol, and Damon talking to Stefan-so Chloe took the opportunity to be alone and slipped out onto the balcony, breathing in the night air and enjoying the moonlight on her skin as she gazed down at the gardens down below. She enjoyed being alone, being away from the lights and the people and the music, but there was also an ulterior motive to her actions. Somehow she figured that Klaus, while not at all a bashful or timid person, would prefer to approach her if she were alone, even if only because he figured it would intimidate her. She wanted this meeting over and done with, and his putting it off so far was really starting to get to her.

"Beautiful." An accented voice announced behind her.

Chloe smirked ahead of her before training away the expression before she turned to face Niklaus Mikaelson. "Yes it is." She then turned to grab hold of the railing and gaze down at the gardens.

"I meant you."

She chuckled as she turned to face him once more. "Thank you for lending my cousin and I the dresses and the jewelry, but believe me, the compliments aren't needed." The blonde tilted her head as she eyed him curiously. "They are appreciated, coming from the Vampire King, but given the fact that I know you want something from me I wouldn't know whether you really meant what you were saying or if you were just trying to butter me up."

He was silent for a moment before nodding. "Fair enough." The Original Vampire came to stand next to her by the railing, his gaze on the gardens below. "How are you enjoying my little get-together so far?"

"I love how you keep referring to it as a "little get-together" as if there are only a few friends in your living room." Her snort was unladylike but she couldn't help it. "George Clooney and Julia Roberts are in there."

"Rebekah's doing. She's obsessed with Ocean's Eleven. "

Chloe blinked at that. "I see."

"I preferred the original to the remake myself…" Niklaus shrugged, his gaze going to her. "Walk with me, there's a staircase back there which will lead us below without us having to return inside." There was something about the way his whole expression shifted that put her on the alert. "You simply _must_ see the gardens in the moonlight."

Chloe gazed at the arm he offered her and realized that there was something in those gardens, something more than just flowers, and for a second she wanted to go back inside to the relative safety it offered, but instead she took in a deep breath and nodded as she looped her arm through his. "Lead the way."

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**TBC**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: Don't own Smallville/Supernatural/Vampire Diaries**

**A/N: The next chapter should be the last chapter for this segment in the series.**

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"So, do I smell a new 'ship in the making? What would they even be called?" Dean turned to Sam as Bela reached them and plonked herself onto a stool. "Belamon?" He suddenly snickered. "They sound like a pokemon."

Sam rolled his eyes and yet was smirking as well. "They kinda do."

Bela ignored them, ordering a beer and bewildering the uppercrust-looking waiter who stammered before nodding and saying he'd go and see if he could find one. She then turned and looked at both brothers, giving them a two-finger salute, smile on her face. "So, my pretty boys, I see your dates have been stolen from you and so you've been reduced to having to comment on the status of _my_ date. How the heartthrobs have fallen."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Remember who got you the date."

Sam raised an eyebrow at Dean. "_Me_." He then turned to Bela. "You having a good time? Damon can be a bit of a dick."

"I've discovered that." Bela flashed Sam a smile. "It's made the night much more enjoyable." She suddenly snickered. "He passed Kristen Stewart our empty champagne flutes before dragging me off onto the dance floor! That alone made my night!"

Sam chuckled and shook his head. "You need to get over the time you thought she snubbed you."

"I am so over it." Bela rolled her eyes. "You should've seen her face, it was so shocked! She's not going to forget who I am _now!_"

Dean snorted in amusement as he put down his own empty flute of champagne and started to walk away.

Bela made a face. "Where do you think you're doing? I haven't finished!"

"I'm going to find the bathroom," he flung over his shoulder with a careless wave. "Bore Sam with your pettiness."

Bela rolled her eyes before she turned her gaze to Sam. "He still annoyed that they forced him to take Lois?"

Sam nodded with a smirk.

Bela chuckled and accepted the beer from the waiter when he finally returned. "Have you seen your father yet? I heard he was going to be here."

"Yes, he's been over in that corner watching Lois dancing with Kol, and getting exceedingly drunk." Sam gave a dark sigh. "I'm two sips away from going over there and taking his drink away before he causes a scene."

John, visibly tipsy, stumbled slightly into one of the women in his circle of friends.

Sam sighed as he downed his glass. "That's my cue."

Bela smirked. "Oooh, I'm not going to miss this!" She hopped off of the stool and tagged along.

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"You know, for a human, you don't dance horribly."

"Look at that, a half-way compliment." Ric raised an eyebrow as they continued to glide on the dancefloor, the hunter still not sure what the Vampire Princess' gameplan was five dances in. She hadn't requested he change with Stefan yet and while his legs were getting a little tired of the continuous dancing (and he'd never really liked to dance in the first place) he didn't complain as he tried to figure out what was really going on here. He knew that there was more going on than met the eye, machinations were going on beneath the surface, and everything they saw wasn't what it appeared. "Two more dances and you might even crack a smile and _not_ look like you're forced to be here."

Her expression darkened and she gazed away as he led her in a twirl. "You should know by now that whatever Niklaus wants, Niklaus gets, it doesn't matter what anyone else feels about it."

Ric frowned slightly. "His brothers and sister included?"

Rebekah's gaze rose to his face in silence before she looked away once more. "Where did you learn to waltz?"

Ric's frown grew. "I learnt it for my wedding."

The Vampire Princess' gaze returned to him quickly, wide in surprise. "I did not know you were married."

He let out a dark chuckle. "I'm not anymore, she's dead."

"Oh." Rebekah nodded slowly and didn't offer him any condolences on the loss of his wife, instead her gaze went to where her brother Finn danced with his date, a pretty redhead. "I hear that you are in cohorts with Finn's little harlot."

Ric's grip on Rebekah's hand tightened. "I would appreciate it if you did not refer to Sage like that."

"Why not?" Rebekah smirked in dark amusement as her gaze returned to him. "She calls _me_ an 'elitist bitch'."

Well… That _was_ true…

"He had a chance a hundred years or so, to be able to go back to her, and he chose not to." Rebekah's smirk was dark. "Do you want to know why?"

Ric eyed the Vampire Princess in his arms. "Why?"

She leaned in closer, her voice soft. "Why don't you ask Sage to tell you about the days leading up to Finn leaving with Niklaus? They might shed some light into the whole matter." She then pulled away, her lips tilted in a smirk.

The hunter eyed her in confusion, wondering what exactly Sage hadn't told him.

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"You are taking this in relative stride." Klaus' voice was amused as he led Chloe slowly through the admittedly breathtaking garden. "I was expecting a non-stop explosion of questions and demands."

"I've been ordered by my boss, Perry White, to get some sort of an interview from you for my first article for Chloe & The Dead People since going on my 'sabbatical', so I can assure you, you'll be getting questions from me." She was fighting to remain calm, to not let her growing unease show as they moved further and further away from the building. "I figured, as you so _graciously_ invited me here and then kidnapped my sire and my friend to make sure I came, you should have your questions and demands heard first." She let a beat go before adding: "It's only polite."

There was silence before he chuckled. "I agree." His gaze went to the moon as he took in a deep breath. "I will bring the vampires out of the moonlight, so to speak, and into the sunlight of a new era. We will no longer hide, lost and forgotten in the shadows and darkness, a figment of a child's nightmares. We should've never been reduced to myth and legend, but should've been what we were always meant to be-what we've always been."

"And what's that?"

"Superior."

Something churned darkly in Chloe's stomach as her fear made her try to bluff her way out of this. "I'm about to put a chink in that superior chain of yours then because I can't do what Katherine said I could. She was just trying to get me away from Stefan and Damon. I _am _faulty though in that I can't Compel people. I don't know where she got the part that I could instead Compel people who have Vervain in them. Maybe she made that assumption on the basis that I couldn't Compel people without Vervain."

Klaus smirked. "Is that so?"

"You don't believe me." She continued with the bluff. "Why else do you think I would come here in person to try and clear this whole thing up? Do you _really_ think I'd be stupid enough to come here if I could actually do what she said I could? I'd be basically signing myself over to whatever nefarious plans you have for me."

He eyed her in dark amusement. "Now-now-nefarious is rather _harsh_, don't you think?"

Chloe bit her tongue to keep from answering that question honestly.

He seemed to realize that and snorted before his eyes shifted in Compulsion. "Answer the question."

A hiss escaped Chloe's lips as the Vervain inside of her body boiled.

Klaus shook his head. "I see, you've got Vervain in your system." He snorted. "No doubt Katerina taught you that little annoying trick." He paused. "How _is_ dear old Katerina? We know each other very well you know."

"Probably explains why you seem to want to kill her," Chloe quipped, mouthy when she was unnerved. "So far all the men I know who knew Katherine at some point in their lives want her dead."

Klaus chuckled darkly. "Let's just say she knows how to leave an impression." He then stopped. "We're here."

Chloe looked up, eyes wide when she realized they'd reached the center of the maze-like gardens, and in the center was Elijah Mikaelson, and he wasn't alone. There was a human with him, and the human didn't look in good condition at all. He'd obviously been beaten up quite a bit and was bleeding, and it was only the fact that he was downwind from them why Chloe hadn't picked up the scent of blood as yet. Still though, she took a step backwards, not trusting herself or her still flimsy self-control when it came to the bloodlust.

Klaus didn't let her go too far though, his grip still on her looped arm as he pulled her forwards, a smirk on his face. "Miss Sullivan, let me introduce you to my ever-disapproving brother, Elijah."

Chloe's gaze rose to Elijah, who looked strikingly out of place, the picture of a proper gentlemen, who held on tightly to the bloodied human. "I'd like to say it's a pleasure to meet you but I have the distinct impression it won't be."

Elijah cleared his throat, an almost apologetic expression crossing his eyes before his gaze turned to Klaus. "He's ready."

"For what?" Chloe's gaze narrowed and slid to Klaus.

"To kill you in order to gain his freedom." Klaus was the picture of tranquility. "Unless you Compel him to not do so. And you can't stop him by any other means other than Compulsion or we will kill _you_."

Chloe licked her lips. "I told you that-."

He let go of her and stepped away. "Begin."

Chloe turned towards the man as he stood and glared at her, strong and determined despite his injuries, obviously a hunter. The Originals were calling her bluff and it was time to fold. She narrowed her eyes and tried to force the Compulsion. "Stop moving." But instead of working, the Vervain inside of her system reared up, boiling in her veins and causing her to cry out and double over in pain.

What was happening?

Was the Vervain in her body counteracting her ability?

The human came at her with a yell, swinging a machete she hadn't realized he'd had on him, almost managing to slice her head off of her neck.

Chloe cried as she stumbled back, the thought of fleeing eminent on her mind, but then she remembered that her friends and everyone were still in the gala and had no idea of what was going on. Plus, she couldn't run forever and this world was an Original World right now. She couldn't outrun that. She had to stand still and fight it. It was why she dodged another blow of the machete and tried the Compulsion again. "_Stop moving_."

Once more the Vervain inside of her system boiled, her veins acting like conduits, taking it all throughout her body and making the vampire trip as the pain magnified, the scent of her burnt flesh searing through the air and making her cry out. Her eyes burnt her horribly, momentarily fogging her vision and panic set in as she sped to the side, dodging a blow, running into Elijah as her eyes healed enough so that she could see her human attacker and evade his newest attack on her.

The dress, well, it was never gonna be the same again.

Chloe stumbled and fell to the ground, eyes wide as the human stood over her and brought the machete swinging down.

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"You know, you should be on _my_ side," the weak and annoying voice declared from inside the cell. "If there's anyone who understands doing what she must to get back her man, even when he doesn't want to be gotten back, it should be _you_."

Sage didn't look up from her book, and instead of answering merely turned the page.

Katherine was a persistent vampire though and didn't give up. "You're doing what you're doing to get Finn back."

"I'm doing what I'm doing to give Finn his _freedom_." Sage snapped her book shut. "If we get back together, that will be a bonus and I definitely wouldn't complain about it."

Katherine was at the bars, an eyebrow raised. "You still don't get it, do you?"

"Get what?" Sage glared.

"Finn's stopped fighting for his freedom _because_ of you." Katherine rolled her eyes.

Sage's eyes widened and her grip on the book loosened. "That's a lie. I was there when Niklaus-."

"Sure, he might have been forced before everything went down, but there came a time later on when he was given a choice to stay or go, and he chose to stay with Klaus." Katherine was obviously enjoying this way too much. "And you're too blind to even realize it, much less _why_."

Sage tightened her grip on her book. "You're lying. Finn loved me, he _turned_ me so that we could be together forever! He wouldn't have-!"

"When you were turned into a vampire by him, you were in love with him, weren't you?" There was almost an envious tone to Katherine's voice. "You were head-over-heels, crazy-stupid, no-one-else-in-the-world-for-you in love with him."

"Of course." Sage gulped.

Katherine shook her head. "Let me ask you this then, in all these years since you've been alone have you ever turned someone who was in love with you?"

"Of course not!" Sage glared at the younger vampire.

"Why not?" Katherine tilted her head.

"I had Finn." Sage hesitated.

"And…" Katherine raised an eyebrow.

Sage's eyes widened in horror as she finally realized what Katherine had been hinting at this whole time. "_I am not sire-bound to Finn Mikaelson_!"

"He believes you are, or at least that you were." Katherine leaned her forehead against the bars. "It's one of the reasons why he left you. Said you really didn't love him anymore, that it was the 'horrid' sire-bond that made you think you did. It's why he agreed to stay with Niklaus and leave you, so that hopefully, with time and distance away from him, such a rare malady might pass." She took in a deep breath. "It's very rare for a vampire to have a sire-bond with her Sire like werewolves with their Alpha, but it has been known to happen, _especially_ if the human was in love with the vampire who turned her."

Sage stumbled back, her world rocked as she collapsed to her knees on the ground, a part of her breaking.

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"Chloe's not going to like the idea of killing her, but I say she doesn't really have a say in it." Damon took a long gulp of his glass of bourbon. "Katherine's _our_ sire and I say we get to waste her whenever we want to."

"I second that." Stefan nodded in agreement, taking a sip of his own drink. "She might have useful information, but I don't think she'd help us or that we could trust a word that came out of her mouth."

"No, we couldn't." Damon made a face. "I say we make Sage fry Katherine's brains to get as much info out of her as possible, and then we tear the skank's shrivelled heart out of her body."

"Sounds like a plan."

The Salvatores touched glasses.

Stefan took in a deep breath. "I'll talk to Chloe and get her to see things our way."

"Whatever." Damon rolled his eyes. "You'll have to tear her away from whoever Richie Rich is first though." The vampire then frowned when he realized that the dude she'd been dancing with was now with his two model twits. "She must have gone back to the Wonder Twins."

Stefan's gaze went to where Sam was arguing with his father in a corner of the room, the older man visibly intoxicated. Bela was next to Sam, watching with dark amusement and offering no sort of help whatsoever.

Stefan took a step forwards as he gazed around the ballroom, eyes narrowed as a dark sensation churned in his stomach. "Damon, where's Chloe?"

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Rolling onto the side, Chloe heard the sound of the blade of the machete embedding itself deep into the ground, exactly where her neck would have been, and the adrenaline from her fear gave her the rush she needed to push up to her feet in the blink of an eye and turn towards the human, who was trying to yank the machete out of the earth. She wrapped an arm around her stomach and held her hand out towards the human, eyes narrowed, bracing for the pain as she waited for him to yank the blade out of the earth and turn to face her to try the Compulsion once more. "_Stop moving_."

The human not only didn't stop moving, but he changed his grip on the machete and threw it at her with a yell.

The pain of the Vervain erupted within her and burnt her eyes, fogging them over and leaving her blind. She cried out in pain, unable to see the machete flying towards her, when suddenly something slammed into her and sent her flying to the ground harshly.

The vampire was whoozy and confused, trying to blink as her eyes slowly healed themselves back, the sound of the human yelling as he raced towards her letting her know she didn't have much time-and then the scent of _blood_ permeated the air.

Chloe's eyes widened as her greens finally healed enough to find Dean Winchester standing in front of her, bloody machete in his hand. He pulled it out of the chest of the human, who fell to the ground with a groan. "_Dean_?"

Dean tightened his grip on the machete, pale and yet determined, gaze on Klaus and Elijah as he held his hand out towards her. "I realized you weren't inside anymore and remembered an invitation to see the gardens."

Chloe placed her hand in his and accepted his help to her feet, the blonde's green gaze going to the Originals. "You shouldn't have come here."

"Really?" Dean snorted. "Because from where I'm standing, I just saved your life."

"Exactly." Klaus frowned as he eyed them. "You, a mere human, saved a vampire's life from another human." He shook his head in disgust. "Do you know how _pathetic_ that is?" His gaze turned to Chloe. "You were right when you said Katherine was lying and that you are in no way what we were promised."

Chloe took in a deep breath and tightened her grip on Dean's hand, protective. "I tried to explain that to you before you gave me this pop quiz."

"You did, and we should have known better than to believe anything that came from Katerina Petrova." The Original gave a little nod, and a muscle jumped in his cheek before his gaze turned to Dean. "The human interfered in business that did not concern him or his kind." His smile was dark. "We told you what would happen should anything other than Compulsion befall the captive."

Chloe's eyes widened in horror. "You told _me_! Not Dean! He was only trying to protect me!"

"That does not matter, my word is law. What sort of ruler would I be if anyone could break my rules and not be punished?" Klaus smirked before his gaze turned to Elijah. "You know what to do."

Elijah hesitated for a second, took in a deep breath, before he nodded and in a split before had grabbed Dean by his neck and raised him high into the air and slapped the machete out of his hand. He stared up unfeelingly at the struggling human. "Any last words before I break your neck and make it seem like you had a drunken fall down the stairs?"

Dean clawed at the hand around his neck that was holding him up in the air like a ragdoll. "Fuck… you!"

Elijah gave a little shrug. "I've heard worse."

"_DON'T!_" Chloe screamed in a terror unlike any she'd ever felt before in her life as she reached out and placed her hand on Elijah's arm. The Vervain boiling inside of her burnt like hell but she pushed passed the blinding, agonizing pain and focused on Elijah as he turned to look at her. "_**Don't**_."

The vampire eyed her in silence.

"_Elijah_." Klaus sing-songed from behind them. "What are you doing? Break his neck already."

Elijah just stared at Chloe.

Encouraged, Chloe squeezed Elijah's arm and maintained eye contact as she fought against the agonizing, breath-taking pain of the Vervain boiling in her veins. "_Please_ _put him down_."

Elijah shocked the hell out of her by wordlessly releasing his hold on Dean and dropping the human to the ground.

Dean coughed as he stumbled to his feet, hands to his neck.

"_What the hell_?" Klaus snarled as he stormed towards them before stopping. "_Impossible_." He cleared his throat. "_Elijah, kill him_."

Chloe turned her glare on Klaus. "_**No**_."

Klaus stared at her in wide-eyed awe, his lips half-curled as his gaze went to Dean and then to Chloe before they went to Elijah and the smile dropped before his gaze returned to Chloe. He seemed to be thinking something through, his eyes narrowed as he took in a deep breath, his tongue wetting his lips before he cleared his throat and stepped forwards. "Perhaps I did act a bit _rashly_."

Chloe blinked in surprise at the change in demeanor as she let go of Elijah and stepped away.

Dean picked up his machete and moved so that he stood slightly in front of Chloe, eyes narrowed on Klaus and Elijah, the latter who was shaking his head and who looked somewhat confused.

Klaus eyed his brother with unnerved, narrowed eyes, before he turned those eyes on Chloe, a calculating glint in his eyes before he smiled at her. "Do you know Ester's Coffee Shop in Hollywood Boulevard?"

Chloe frowned at the change in subject. "I've heard of it, but I've never actually gone there."

"Wednesday at 4:30 I have an opening, we can have our interview for your Chloe & The Dead People then so that you do not have trouble with your boss." Klaus' smile was pure charm. "We should be friends, Chloe Sullivan."

The blonde blinked, completely confused. "You just tried to kill Dean and I."

"I try to kill everyone at least once, my brothers and sister can attest to that, it practically makes you both family." He tsked and shook his head as both he and Elijah turned to leave and rejoin those in the party. "You can bring Mary Campbell's son along too if you'd like."

Dean's eyes widened in shock. "How did you know that Mary Campbell was my mother?"

Klaus smirked as he gazed over his shoulder at them. "Your pendant."

Dean's eyes widened as he looked down to realize that in the scuffle his pendant had become visible. "How did you know my mother?"

Klaus and Elijah had already disappeared into the shadows.

Dean turned to Chloe. "My mother knowing Sage, a vampire, is one thing-but the King of Vampires knowing mom well enough to know I was her son just because he saw this?" Dean looked up at Chloe, confusion in his eyes. "Just who the hell was my mother?" His gaze then went to where the dead human had been seconds ago only to find that the body had been moved, all that remained was the bloodstain from where he'd bled out. "I-_I killed a man_."

Chloe took in a deep breath as she reached out and hugged Dean tightly. "_You saved my life_."

Dean held onto her tightly, as if to life itself.

Chloe felt his grief, and it made her guilt grow, because if it hadn't been for her, he would never have known this sorrow.

And that's how Damon and Stefan found them.

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**TBC**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: Don't own Smallville/Supernatural/Vampire Diaries**

**A/N: Last chapter of this segment of the Chloe & The Brothers Series!**

**Warning: Lemon**

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Alaric cleaned his weapons as he tried to get his head around all the things that'd happened since they'd come back from the gala to find Sage and Katherine gone from the safe-house, Sage having left a note which merely said: "Sorry". Damon was calling her a traitor and putting her on "the list" but Alaric felt that whatever had happened had to do with what Rebekah had insinuated the night of the gala. He was alone for the moment, and it gave him the time and silence he needed to be able to think. Chloe and Dean were at their meeting with Niklaus Mikaelson, and while the others had been told to stay away, every single other person had come up with "something important" to do at the very same time that the meeting was going down so Ric knew they were going to go and spy. He wasn't though. He felt that Niklaus had already made his move, in a threateningly way at least, at the gala, and that this meeting was more of a talking of terms, and they didn't need Ric there for that. They didn't need Damon there either but it wasn't like they'd be able to get him away from Chloe, especially when there was an Original involved.

"So, just how mad are you?"

Ric looked up to see Sage leaning in the doorway, the hunter somewhat disconcerted that he hadn't sensed her presence. "Why did you let her go?"

The redhead sighed as she entered the room. "It was a thing of honor, I owed her for opening my eyes to some truths that I should have seen, or at least suspected." She licked her lips. "Apparently I might've once been sired-bound to Finn. I didn't want to admit it, but I've taken the last couple of days away to go over the first couple of hundred years we were together and go over my actions, and I think I actually might have been sire-bound."

"Sire-bound?" Ric made a face, not having heard of this term before when applied to a vampire.

"All the love I had for Finn as a human basically turned on me and made me a slave of love for him the moment I was turned into a vampire." Sage's smile was weak and twisted as she entered the room. "His will was my will. That sort of thing." She shook her head. "I'm getting why he didn't come back, if he really was given a chance to do so by Niklaus, but to be honest he never really _was_ given a chance to come back to me because Niklaus knows his brother well enough to know that if Finn suspected I was sire-bound to him that he wouldn't return. Finn loves me, and if he thought distance and time would help break, or weaken, the sire-bond between us and give me my own free-will back, he'd stay away for as many centuries as necessary." Her smile was sad. "He'd stay away forever, even, if it meant that I had my own free-will again."

Alaric was pissed at Sage, he knew it and he knew she knew it, and yet he could understand the stupid things people did for love. Hadn't he become the person he'd become today for Isobel? He understood that sort of love and devotion, that sort of heartbreak, and it was why the hunter wordlessly put down the weapon and walked towards the vampire. He let out a sigh and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her for the first time since their partnership, and as he did so he could feel her go taunt, tense in shock, before her whole body began to shake like a earthquake before she wrapped her own arms around him and cried into his shoulder.

"All these years I've survived thinking that Niklaus would free Finn-and then when he didn't that _I_ would free Finn-and that we're be together forever like we'd promised the night he sired me." Sage clung tightly to Alaric, her voice high and words muffled by his shirt, yet audible and distinguishable. "And now I realize what Damon must've felt when he went into that crypt and realized that Katherine wasn't there. He lived for centuries for that moment, for when he'd free her, just like I had for Finn, and now the both of us have shown ourselves to be nothing but love's fools." She tightened her grip on Alaric's shirt as her trembling grew worse. "I love Finn so much, but I'm never going to be with him ever again… and the worse part is that I'm not even sure anymore if it's still my own love what I'm feeling, or if it's the sire-bond."

Ric closed his eyes as she promptly broke down completely, unable to speak further, the vampire hunter wondering when things had changed so spectacularly in his life that instead of staking vampires he was helping and comforting brokenhearted ones. When did he stop seeing them as soulless monsters, and instead discovered that they were his best friends? His makeshift family? "It'll be fine, everything will work out somehow, I promise." He sighed as he rested his chin on the crown on her head. "You'll be alright."

Sage merely continued to cry, the woman a sad shell of the flirtatious redhead who'd approached him in a bar and offered a partnership so long ago.

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"So, why don't we just ask Stefan to come and join us as a representative of the _highly_ un-stealthy bunch of friends you have, and send the others off on their way?" Klaus wanted to know, a cup of steaming coffee in his hands as he smiled conversationally at Chloe and Dean. "I think we'd all agree that the three of you would represent the different factions interested in this meeting." He took a leisurely sip of his coffee. "The others are inconvenient and unnecessary."

A muscle jumped in Dean's cheek. "How do we know it's not another trap and everyone in this store isn't Compelled to do something once the others leave?"

"Who says we're leaving?" That was Damon. He'd gotten up before Stefan could even get the chance to and stalked over to them, slipping into the seat next to Chloe, a sneer on his face as he eyed the Original Vampire.

"Ah yes, the brother." Klaus tilted his head to the side as he eyed him. "That's why I didn't offer to have you come, you have a penchant for causing scenes."

Damon's eyes narrowed. "Now listen here, you crusty-."

Chloe reached out her hand and placed it on his arm. "Damon, _please_."

Klaus smirked as he took another regal sip of his coffee. "Listen to her, Damon. You're calling too much attention to yourself." He took another sip. "You really need to learn how to behave in civilized company."

Damon smiled.

Chloe's eyes widened in horror as she realized that Damon was running through scenarios on how to kill the Original and was probably going to try and implement one in a second or two if she didn't step in. They didn't know how to kill Klaus, or even if he could be killed, and she wasn't going to let Damon get himself killed over a pissing contest with the other male. "Damon, please leave."

He frowned as he turned to her. "What?"

She licked her lips. "I can handle this, and he's right, you're causing a scene." Better to make Damon angry with _her_ than with Klaus. At least _that_ wouldn't get him killed. "This is for my job. I have to be professional about this and since you seem incapable of keeping yourself in check you should leave and cool off somewhere."

Damon narrowed his eyes at her before he stood. "Unbelievable." He shook his head and stormed out of the place.

Chloe closed her eyes and took in a deep breath.

Dean cleared his throat and looked over his shoulder after the door swung closed behind Damon. "I know he's a pain in the ass-but wasn't that a bit harsh?"

The blonde opened her eyes and rested them on Klaus. "Where were we?"

Klaus eyed her in silence, his eyes amused, his lips twisted in a knowing smirk. He'd apparently seen through her actions and knew why she'd acted the way she had, and it gave him a wave of dark amusement. "Really, Stefan, he's everything you told me he was and more, I suspect."

Chloe looked up to see Stefan walking up behind Klaus, his hands in his pockets.

Lois and Sam were paying for their drinks and leaving, though they didn't look happy about it.

"I've been told we knew each other." Stefan moved so that he could eye Klaus from the side before he slid into the seat his brother had vacated. "I'm assuming the reason I can't remember any of it is because I've been Compelled not to."

Klaus eyed the three of them with a smirk. "Ah yes, three people with questions in need of answers only I can give them." His smirk grew. "So. Who wants to go first?"

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Bela Talbot walked into the bar and looked around before finally finding her target sitting alone in a dark corner, cradling a glass of some form of alcohol or the other, and scowling darkly. She rolled her eyes and pulled off her shades as she ventured further into the bar, ignoring the other people inside and making a beeline to Damon Savatore. She didn't say hello and he didn't say it either, instead she merely grabbed a seat, ordered a whiskey, and turned to face him, observing the dark, murderous scowl, and figured this was Chloe-related-not that she hadn't figured that out considering that he wouldn't have deigned to accept her offer to a drink "any time" if it wasn't because he wanted to vent and he didn't have anyone else he could vent to.

"So…" Bela had waited to get her drink before breaking the silence. "Dean, Sam or Stefan?"

"Klaus."

She blinked, highly impressed. "Wow. She's going to need to buy a stable soon to house you lot."

Damon sent Bela a glower as he took a long gulp of his drink. "And it's not like _that_."

"How is it like then?" She was curious, and to be honest, this whole thing was far too entertaining for her to pass up.

Damon took in a deep breath, a muscle jumping in his cheek. "They're meeting at this place, right? And this guy tried to kill her previously, and instead of backing me up she backs _him_ up and tells me to leave! How ungrateful-?" He stopped, finished his drink with a long gulp, ordered another, and then turned to Bela once more. "What the hell is wrong with her?"

Bela blinked as she tried to make sense of the very little information Damon had given her. "So you're saying Klaus tried to kill Chloe?"

"Not the issue."

"Right." She raised an eyebrow at him. "The big issue is that she sided with him over you."

"And told me to leave. _Me_." Damon's eyes narrowed. "_To. Leave_."

Bela took a sip of her drink and gave herself a couple of minutes to think this through. "Why?"

"I know, right?!"

"No-I'm asking what her reasons for asking you to leave were."

Damon glared at Bela and then at his drink. "I was only defending her from that asshole and-."

"So basically you were antagonizing the Vampire King."

"He's not my king," Damon interrupted. "I didn't vote him in."

"Voting would imply something more like a president than a king." Bela wondered if Damon had realized that he'd just basically told her he was a vampire, something which she hadn't realized up until that point in their acquaintanceship.

Damon apparently hadn't, and wasn't listening to her, instead in mid-rant. "-smug smirking bastard got off saying that I was making a scene-and she actually _agreed_ with him and-."

Bela raised an eyebrow as she eyed Damon, the Vampire.

Wow. She hadn't seen that one coming. But it kinda made sense now that she thought about it.

The brunette smirked. It made this whole thing the more challenging! Her days of boredom between shoots were over! It had been decided: Damon Salvatore was now going to become her new pet project. By the time she was finished with him, he was going to knock Chloe off of her feet and going to bulldoze through the competition. "Sorry, Sam and Dean."

Damon stopped in the middle of his rant. "Are you even listening to what I'm-?"

"Has it occurred to you that she was protecting you?" Bela had managed to figure that much out on her own and rolled her eyes at the disbelief on Damon's face. "You were antagonizing the self-appointed Vampire King, Damon. That can't be good for your health. How I see it, she sent you out before you did something that might make Niklaus Mikaelson really mad and attack you."

Damon paused before he narrowed his eyes at her.

Bela rolled her eyes. "It's like in Supernatural Diaries, in the episode with the Banshee?"

Damon stared blankly at her. "I didn't watch that show."

"Why not?" Bela's eyes widened in horror. "Chloe's in it!"

"So are the Wonder Dorks," he reminded her.

"You're missing out." Bela shook her head. "You don't really know Chloe if you don't watch that show."

Damon frowned at that.

Bela let out a deep sigh. "Anyway, this banshee screams while Chloe's filming something without the others, and you know the legend says that if you hear the banshee screaming it means you're going to die that night. So what did Chloe do? She called Sam and Dean, who were off doing something, and gave them a false lead to follow so that they would be far away from her, and then she called Lois, who was already on the way, and purposely picked a fight with her so that she would turn the car around and not come again."

Damon leaned forwards, his drink forgotten. "Why the hell would she do that?"

"Because, apparently, there's also another, more obscure, legend that says that sometimes it's not the person who hears it who dies, but that it's someone the person loves, and the person will see them die. So she chose to push everyone else away so that she wouldn't see them." Bela sighed. "In other words, she decided to spend that night alone, so she'd be the one who died and not them."

Damon clenched his fists. "Obviously she didn't die though."

"No, her cameraman did though. Neither of them had even considered him as an option." Bela leaned back. "Chloe fought to not have that episode released but the cameraman's family gave permission, said that they wanted the world to see the last episode he'd filmed. It was dedicated to him in memoriam."

Damon was silent.

Bela downed her whiskey and motioned for the bill. "Come on, pay for these drinks, we've got to go."

Damon looked up from his own drink. "Where?"

"We're going back to my place and you're going to watch the whole Season One of Supernatural Diaries."

"The _hell_ I am!" He glared at her.

Bela glared back as she stood and slammed her hands down on the table. "Sam and Dean know _that _Chloe and they know _this_ Chloe. They have a huge advantage over you. I get that you don't want to watch a show that basically revolves around their relationship, but we're doing this because if you want any real chance with Chloe you _need_ to _know_ her, to know the her _before_ she became a vampire."

Damon glared viciously up at Bela before he finally snarled and stood, flinging some bills unto the table. "Just so we're clear, I'm only doing this because I've been promised that Dean nearly gets scalped in one of these episodes by a doll."

Bela's lips twitched in dark amusement as she nodded. "Come on, you've got a lot to catch up with."

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"Mary Campbell," Klaus was intrigued that they'd let Dean go first, then again, out of the three of them he seemed more desperate for answers, the other two craving theirs and yet not with the intensity that Dean did. "I'm surprised that your brother didn't fight to be a part of this conversation."

"Sam knows he can trust me to tell him whatever you tell us." Dean raised his chin defiantly.

Klaus eyed the boy and his lips twisted as he saw the haunted depths of those hazels orbs, guessing that this was the real reason why the younger brother had bowed out so easily. Apparently the human Dean had killed that night in the garden was the first person he'd ever taken the life of and he'd been having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that he'd killed someone, Klaus could practically taste the torment rising out of the man's pores. The younger brother would've realized that this was the only thing keeping Dean sane and allowed him the control of this meeting due to this. The Original Vampire felt a stab of envy at the brotherly love those two obviously shared, one he himself might have once shared with his own family, but definitely did not any longer.

"How did you know my mother?"

"I suppose you could say that we once ran in similar circles." His lips twitched in amusement before he cleared his throat and sat a little straighter. "To put things quite bluntly, your mother and I were lovers at one point."

Dean's eyes widened and Klaus anticipated the male throwing himself at him across the table any second now.

Chloe must have as well, because she reached out and placed her hand on Dean's thigh, giving him a squeeze, the touch seeming to ground him enough to keep him in his seat.

"_That's a lie_." Dean's voice was harsh, almost violent.

"No, it's very much the truth." Klaus shook his head as he eyed the male, eyed the necklace he wore. "I gave her that necklace you're wearing right now, and to prove it I can tell you there's a _M_ inscribed on the back, it's placed in the design in such a way that you'd have to really study the design to notice it." He smirked as he saw Dean go pale. "I'm sure you thought it stood for "Mary" and not for "Mikaelson"."

"_Dean_?" Chloe whispered as she turned to the boy.

Stefan narrowed his eyes. "What game are you playing, Klaus?"

"No game at all, Stefan." Klaus eyed Dean as he spoke. "The boy asked me a question and I'm answering it truthfully. His mother was my lover for a time before we parted ways."

Dean clutched at his necklace with shaking a hand, hazel eyes narrowed, his light freckles even more visible against his pale skin as he glared up at Klaus. "Just who the _hell_ was my mother and why was she wrapped up in the supernatural world?"

"Because Mary Campbell was a _part_ of the supernatural world." Klaus chuckled as he saw the three pale across from him, having known that this would be gratifying. "Oh come on now, you hadn't _really_ thought that a _human_ would be able to be that deep into the supernatural world as to be my mistress?" He snorted and shook his head as his gaze went to Dean, who looked sick. "Mary left you and your brother a special little heritage, although since you are all so surprised, neither Sam nor you must have come into it as yet." He licked his lips. "How could you live all your lives and not suspect that you were _better_ than those around you?"

Dean looked in shock, his eyes wide.

"Dean?" Chloe's eyes were wide, one hand on his back, the other still on his thigh.

Stefan narrowed his eyes on Klaus. "What sort of supernatural creature was she?"

Klaus finally turned his gaze on his old friend. "That question doesn't have a straightforwards answer, but I guess you could say she was a Kyrkogrim."

Stefan's eyes narrowed further. "His mother was a _Grim_?"

Dean's head swung up at that and he turned to look at Stefan. "My mother was a Grim Reaper?"

Stefan kept his narrowed eyes on Klaus before he finally turned to Dean and shook his head. "A Kyrkogrim, otherwise known as a Grim, is the spirit of an animal that was sacrificed by the early Christians at the building of a new church."

"_What_?" Dean continued to grow paler.

"In some parts of Europe, including Britain and Scandinavia, it was believed that the first man buried in a new churchyard had to guard it against the Devil, and so the Christians found a way to save that soul by instead burying an animal _alive_ on the north side of the churchyard, thus creating a guardian spirit, in order to protect the church." Stefan licked his lips. "Those spirits were said to have the ability to shapeshift."

Chloe went very pale.

"And if their church was destroyed then those guardian spirits were free to do what they wanted." Klaus smirked, enjoying this far too much, even he knew that. "I was traveling through the country around the same time and, well, her human form was quite beautiful so I decided to let her tag along when she asked if she could."

"If she's this Grim, how could she have children?" Chloe narrowed her eyes as she finally tore her eyes from Dean and turned those greens on Klaus. "You said that Grims were the spirits of animals that were sacrificed. She should be unable to procreate."

"The early Christians dabbled in magic and did some incredible things in the name of fighting the Devil." Klaus' smile was taunting. "What they hadn't realized was that the large black dog they'd beaten unconscious and buried alive was a skinwalker and not an actual animal, and that made things a little… _different…_ when it came to the outcome of the ritual. Also, she didn't stay dead long, she was found and revived by another skinwalker, but the fact that she'd died, even if for only a couple of minutes, had completed the ritual and made her into a Grim. To say Mary was a _very special_ Grim was putting it mildly."

Chloe leaned back hard.

"So you're saying…" Stefan paused.

"Yes." Klaus nodded as he eyed Dean. "As her Firstborn son, he's of special interest to me due to his… unique… mixture of DNA."

"I'm not some fucking science experiment," Dean's voice was a low hiss.

"No, you're a promising potential." Klaus smirked back. "Don't get me wrong, your brother has the genes, but as the Firstborn you're far more likely to manifest."

"If I haven't grown a tail yet, I highly doubt I'm about to do so." Dean sneered. "I took after my dad and am only a mere human being."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that." Klaus took a sip of his coffee to heighten the anticipation as their gazes swung to him. "The gardens were designed like a maze to purposely confuse and get people lost, and yet you were able to find us remarkably quickly and seemingly easily. How?"

A disturbed and confused expression covered Dean's face. "I-I-I just followed my instinct."

Instinct.

That was _exactly_ what Klaus had wanted to hear.

He smiled, showing teeth. "That's what your mother used to say."

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"I can't believe we're not in there demanding the truth, or at least being some sort of a backup." Lois hugged herself and kicked at a poster that'd fallen free from somewhere.

Sam sighed as he shucked his hands in his jacket and pulled his cap down over his face more. "If we'd stayed and argued we would've only caused a scene, and Klaus might've decided not to answer their questions. We did the best thing we could've."

"What use are my new vampire-hunting skills if I'm not allowed to use them?" Lois sighed. "Maybe finding out whatever he's finding out will help Dean."

"Maybe." Sam sent Lois a sideways glance when her phone began to ring a certain ringtone, the chorus of "FU" by Miley Cyrus. "Dad's still calling you, huh?"

Lois nodded and didn't make a move to answer the phone. "I know this has to be awkward for you, so don't think I don't appreciate how good a friend you've been."

"His mess, no one told him to put his tongue in her mouth." Sam shrugged as they continued to walk. "I have to say it though, that ringtone is mean. You _know_ he doesn't like Miley Cyrus."

Lois snickered as she nodded as the ringing stopped. "Tough."

Sam smirked as he bumped his shoulder into hers playfully and would've said something else when _another _personalized ringtone started. This time it was the chorus of "Get Sleazy" by Ke$ha, which betrayed the fact that the girl hadn't been as unfazed by her meeting with the man behind the ringtone as she'd like them all to believe. If anything, he'd said something that had obviously pissed the brunette off-just not enough for her to block his calls, not that she answered any though. "So, you ever going to tell me how Kol Mikaelson got your cellular number?"

Lois made a face as she let the call ring out. "Sure, once I figure that out myself."

"Ever going to tell us what Kol said to piss you off?" Sam raised an eyebrow.

Lois pursed her lips. "It's… stupid."

Sam smirked. "We guys tend to do stuff like that. Listening to you helps me learn what _not_ to do."

Lois sent him a sideways glance. "Well, if you put it _that_ way, if it'll be _educational_ and help Team Schlean…" she took in a deep breath. "He said-."

Her phone rang once more, this time the ringtone was the chorus of "New Divide" by Linkin Park. "_No way_." She reached rapidly for her phone and flipped it open, bringing it to her ear. "Hello?"

Sam frowned, gaze on Lois' pale face.

"I can't believe it's you-that you're calling." Lois' voice was soft, barely audible, her face paler and paler as she pulled a dark strand of hair out of it. "How are you? Is everything okay with-? No I don't-I just assumed-I'm sorry, you're right, I should know better."

Just who was on the other side of the phone? Sam had never seen Lois react like this before.

Lois stopped walking and looked nauseas. "I understand. Yes. I can definitely arrange that." She licked her lips, and the look she sent Sam was almost panicked before she gave a shaky smile and turned her back on him as she walked a couple of steps away. "Yes sir. She is." She took in a deep breath. "I'll let her know." She then put her phone back away, her hands shaky.

Sam frowned. "Who was that?"

Lois licked her lips as she let out a little breath. "The General."

Sam didn't get it at first, and then he did. "Your dad?"

Lois nodded, obviously still in shock. "He said he'll be in Hollywood in the next couple of days and wants to have dinner with Chloe and I." Lois took in a deep breath. "He's _never_ "just in town" and just wants to have dinner with us. Something has to be up but I have no idea what."

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"If we were such good friends, as you say, why would you Compel me to forget that?" Stefan leaned forwards after hearing Klaus' recounting of their "Epic Bromance", as Rebekah liked to refer to it scornfully.

Dean was silent on Chloe's other side, still visibly trying to digest everything he'd learnt today.

Before Klaus sat the three most interesting people for him right now, and he was enjoying this day immensely so far, so that was probably why he answered truthfully. "Because, at the time, we were being hunted, and it was in your best interest if you forgot all about us. It was in our best interest that you forgot about us as well." Some of his good mood evaporated as he remembered that time in his life all too well in which he'd had to run for centuries while being hunted like some sort of animal. "You were my best friend, Stefan, and I was sad to part with your friendship. We both understood each other, especially with being saddled with siblings we couldn't trust."

Stefan narrowed his eyes. "I worked out my issues with my brother."

Klaus' gaze went to Chloe before they returned to Stefan. "I've heard. You used to complain endlessly about Katerina and her plans for you and Damon, and yet you seem to have settled into that lifestyle quite happily now with our dear Chloe." His gaze returned to Chloe. "Then again, she _is_ special."

Chloe narrowed her eyes at him.

He smirked.

"Keep looking at her like that-." Stefan started.

Klaus chuckled as he turned his gaze towards the younger vampire. "I've never known you to be so possessive, Stefan. We used to share conquests in the past. And it's not like you're not sharing her already."

Stefan leaned forwards, his eyes darkening.

Chloe reached out and grabbed his arm. "He's baiting you, Stef."

Stefan, the Ripper, took in a deep breath before he sat back down and his eyes went back to normal.

Klaus looked at Chloe once more. She had one hand on Dean's thigh, offering him comfort, and the other on Stefan's arm, calming him.

Chloe's eyes found Klaus' and pinned him with their intensity. "So I'm assuming that this person hunting you is dead, and that's why you can now come out to the world so boldly."

He smirked.

Not to insult Stefan, but she was definitely the brains here.

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"Aren't you embarrassed with yourself?" Rebekah didn't even look up from where she filed her nails. "She's human. Stop calling her like some lovesick schoolboy."

Kol merely flipped his sister the bird as he plopped earphones in his ear and put the music on his phone to play as he took to texting.

"Leave him to his own devices, sister." Finn sat in the corner, a book in his hand. "Kol hasn't been this lively in a while. Let him enjoy himself."

"I'm surprised that you're encouraging him, Finn. She's human." Elijah stepped forwards. "I thought you believed that we should leave the humans alone."

"We should." Finn gazed up from his book. "But I also believe that Miss Lane can take care of herself and handle the situation better than most humans."

"What's there to handle, really?" Rebekah raised an eyebrow. "It's only _Kol_."

Kol flipped her the bird once more.

She smirked in amusement.

Elijah wasn't in as good a mood as them. "You're forgetting that she's Chloe Sullivan's cousin."

Kol finally yanked out his earphones and eyed Elijah. "Why don't you just admit that Chloe Compelled you and that that's got you shitting bricks?"

"Language." And yet Finn was frowning. "In Elijah's defense, that is a very disturbing thing to say the least."

Rebekah put down her nail filer with a sigh. "So what do we know about this Chloe Sullivan other than the fact that when she doesn't have Vervain in her system she can only Compel people using Vervain, but when she has Vervain in her _own_ system she seems unable to Compel people but capable of Compelling _vampires_? An_ Original_ even?" She raised an eyebrow. "And on that note, is there anyone else wondering _why_ Niklaus doesn't want her dead?"

"She doesn't have the ability to Compel _him_." Elijah took a long sip of his drink. "She spoke to him and it had no effect, so I assume that is why she's still alive."

Finn leaned forwards in his seat. "Again, his being the Original Hybrid comes with fringe benefits."

Elijah licked his lips. "We're looking into her past, trying to understand why she came out so… _different_… The ability to be able to Compel another vampire is something only an Original should be able to do, and yet not only can she do it but she can Compel _an Original_…" he finished his drink in a quick gulp.

Kol eyed Elijah. "In a 'Cauldron of Secrets', the last episode of Season One of the Supernatural Diaries, she saved Sam Winchester's life in the most interesting of ways: _magic_."

Finn raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

"She was a witch before she was turned?" Rebekah frowned, thinking about their mother, the Original Witch, the reason they were what they were.

"She said she wasn't a witch, but she saved Sam from the black death curse." Kol eyed everyone, knowing they were familiar with the dreaded curse. "She reverted the curse back to the caster." He cleared his throat. "That takes power."

"No mere dabbler could do that." Elijah frowned. "The black death curse is an extremely powerful curse, and to successfully return it to the caster…" He took in a deep breath. "Maybe that explains why she can do the things she can do."

"She couldn't have been a witch, they're nature's servants while vampires are an "abomination" of nature, you can't be both." Rebekah shook her head as she reminded them what they already knew very well. "If a witch is turned into a vampire, their magical powers will vanish. You know that mother's greatest sadness about turning us was that her magic would die with _her_."

Silence reigned amongst them.

"Well, if not a witch, then _what_?" Finn wanted to know.

Elijah went to get another drink.

Kol eyed his siblings, smirked, and plopped back in his earphones.

Rebekah sighed, good mood evaporated.

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"No." Chloe shook her head, eyes wide in horror. "_No_!"

Klaus smirked, highly amused that _this_ was what had gotten this sort of reaction out of her. "It's already been decided. If you remember, the contracts had been signed before you went on your sabbatical, and it was always on "hiatus". Now, with everything that has been going on, and my own approval and input, Season Two has been greenlit and you _will_ do it."

The girl stared at him as if he'd just told her to walk naked across a room filled with rapists. "_You can't make me_."

She was so amusing.

"_I'm_ not making you, this was a commitment _you'd_ made long before meeting me. I only learnt these details while talking to your boss on the phone earlier when I called to discuss with him the possibility of you becoming an exclusive correspondent for all Original news to the press-when you're not filming Season Two or working on Chloe & The Dead People of course." Klaus was seriously enjoying seeing the horror dawning on her face. "He was ecstatic at the thought, and I'm sure you'll be getting a call from him by tonight to discuss the details of all that will be going on in your very busy future."

"Why are you doing this?" Dean wanted to know. "It doesn't make any sense. You've Compelled most of the world… and _this_ is your next move?"

Klaus smirked. "I do my best to not be predictable."

Stefan shook his head. "I think it's more like you have another game playing beneath the surface and we just have no clue what that is."

Klaus chuckled as he clasped his fingers together and leaned his chin on them. "There could be an element of that as well."

Chloe stared at Klaus as if he was the devil and he terrified her. "Season Two?"

He grinned, showing teeth. Oh, she amused him! _This_ was what scared her! THIS! "Season Two."

She went paler than usual.

"Stop enjoying this," Stefan glared at Klaus before he leaned towards her, his hand on her cheek. "It can't be that bad."

"You don't understand, you didn't even _watch_ Season One." Chloe let out a stuttered breath. "There are cameras _all the time_. And cameramen! It was hard enough keeping things private before! How am I supposed to do it now that I-?" She licked the underside of her teeth.

"We'll figure something out." Dean rubbed her thigh. "It'll be okay Chloe."

Klaus eyed the threesome before him curiously before he cleared his throat loudly. "Right then, now, you had some questions you needed to ask for your article, correct?" He grinned at the nauseated looking blonde. "Let the good times roll!"

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**Episode Five "Devil's Caves" Arizona**

_"We need to get out of here." The fear was visible on Chloe's face as the light strapped to Sam's forehead shone down on her. "We have to get out! The walls-they shifted-we're trapped-air! I need air! I-!"_

_ "Chloe, you need to calm down." Sam placed his hands on her shoulders as he stared down at the girl, who was close to tears and shaking like a leaf in the wind. "You've been through so much worse than this. You need to keep your head straight in these sorts of situations, you taught me that."_

_ "THE WALLS MOVED!" Chloe grabbed at the hands he had on her. "THEY MOVED!" She looked around them, her breathing louder and faster. "They'll close in on us. They'll trap us down here forever, they'll-."_

_ "No they won't." Sam's voice was soft and soothing. "We'll use Dean's GPS device and we'll get out of here."_

_ Dean, clearly disturbed, turned towards Lois, his voice low. "I've never seen her react like this. I didn't even know she was claustrophobic."_

_ Lois was pale, haunted. "She has good reason to be."_

_ "I can't die yet," Chloe kept whispering, eyes closed tightly. "Not like this."_

_ "You're not going to die." Something in Sam's voice must've reached her because she opened her eyes. "You're getting out of here, Chloe, we all are. This isn't your tomb."_

_ Chloe let out a stuttered laugh before she nodded and breathed out deeply, clutching to Sam as if to life itself. "I'm sorry, I-I shouldn't have reacted-you're right." She lifted her head and smiled tremulously at him. "We'll use Dean's gizmo and get out of here."_

Damon shifted, uncomfortable.

He'd never known this Chloe, had never seen her react like this to a situation. Hell, he hadn't realized she was claustrophobic!

He'd only started watching Supernatural Diaries Season One because he had nothing better to do and he wanted to see Dean get nearly scalped by a wannabe Chucky, but as each episode went by he was finding it both harder to watch, and yet more compelling at the same time.

Bela was right, Sam and Dean had a lead on him because they knew a side of Chloe he hadn't even dreamed existed, and damn it, that stung.

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"Now this is doubly-delicious and exciting news for all of you lovers of things that go bump in the night!" Giuliana Rancic announced to the cameras filming her at the E!News set. "This pic was sent to us from one of our viewers, MollyChavez, and it shows a _very_ interesting group of people out having coffee together."

"I'm excited, Giuliana," Jason Kennedy grinned broadly as behind them a large picture appeared on the screen. "What could Dean Winchester, Chloe Sullivan, the man we know as Stefan Salvatore, and the Vampire King be discussing over a cup of coffee?" His grin went broader. "Maybe there's a new show in the horizon?"

"New show?" Giuliana shook her head. "How about new _ship_?" She fanned herself. "Am I the _only_ one who thinks that this might be Chloe's newest scandalously sinful relationship? One Winchester, one Salvatore, and the Vampire King himself. Va-Va-Voom." She let out a cheeky little grin. "We need to christen that ship! What do we call it? Ummm…" she tapped a finger to her glossed lips. "Chleanfanus?"

"That sounds mildly dirty." Jason couldn't stop himself, lips twitching, before he cleared his throat and gave it a try. "Nichlostean?"

Giuliana pouted. "That's not that bad. You've done this before, haven't you?"

"Well, I've always wanted to coin a ship name. It's number 26 on my bucket list," Jason joked before turning his attention to the cameras. "What do you think? Is Nichlostean the new ship setting sail or does Schlean or Chlalvatore or even Schleanvatore still have a chance? Or maybe you think, like our cameraman Tom does, that Chloe needs to dump all of them and instead start afresh with Elijah and Finn Mikaelson while her cousin, the ever lovely Lois Lane, needs to date Kol." He chuckled. "Tweet us your answers #ChloeShipping."

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Sam and Dean had gone back to their apartment, Dean wanting to talk to his brother about what he'd learnt about their mother in the refuge of the apartment they shared.

Damon wasn't home yet.

Lois had told Chloe about The General's call and was now inside with Alaric and Stefan, talking, probably stressing and trying to get her mind off of the fact that she was going to be seeing her father again, and soon.

Chloe had gone off to the small, isolated garden, needing some time alone to get her wits together. She'd typed and emailed her article for Perry to look over, and had then called to let him know that she'd sent it, and to also get confirmation on what Klaus had said. It was true. It was all horribly true. Not only did she have that nightmarish Fashion Police thing to look forwards to, but she was going to have a whole new season of Supernatural Diaries in her future. Not only was the thought of the constant cameras, the blood as people got hurt (and her problem with bloodlust) as well as keeping her vampiric nature a secret tormenting her, but Chloe was going to miss Stefan and Damon like _hell_ during the months of filming! Not to even mention the fact that when Damon found out he was going to blow a gasket and probably leave town and not talk to her for a hundred years or so. He was already pissed, and rightfully so, for how she'd treated him at the coffee shop but she'd known that if she hadn't pissed him off like that he wouldn't have left and Klaus could've killed him. And she preferred the thought of Damon out there not talking to her for a couple of centuries than the mere idea of him dead, permanently.

"Don't _ever_ take that asshole's side against me _ever_ again."

Chloe jerked and pushed up off of the ground she was lying on to instead sit up as she turned to see Damon in the shadows. "I needed to piss you off so you'd leave, Damon. We don't know if he can be killed, but we know _you_ can. And even if he _could_ killed, you know what Sage told Alaric-we might be killing ourselves by killing him. We don't know where our bloodline comes from. So all in all I thought it was the best idea to-."

He moved so rapidly she didn't see coming until she was pinned to the ground, with Damon straddling her hips and pushing her shoulders into the grass, the vampire snarling into her face. "I said _don't_ do it again."

She glared up at him. "I'm sorry I hurt you, Damon, but I'm not going to say I won't because I'll do whatever I have to do to keep you and everyone else I love safe." And then she froze, her eyes widening as she realized what she'd said. This was Damon, the vampire who probably didn't even believe in love anymore after what Katherine had done to him (not that Chloe blamed him, really) and Chloe and the Salvatore brothers had never thrown the L word around so carelessly like this. Even if she'd meant a different sort of love she would have still tried to use a different word because of the awkwardness associated with it when used-. "Why are you looking at me like that?" She was seriously getting nervous as she stared up into Damon's face, realizing that he was just staring at her so intensely. "Don't look at me like that! You're making me feel weird!"

"Really? Weird how?" He smirked down at her as he pressed his lower body against hers in a surprising move. "Because I'm pissed off right now and you know how that makes me feel? _Horny_." He swooped down and kissed her, balancing his weight on his elbows as his lips battled hers angrily and his hips thrusted against her.

Chloe whimpered as she reached up to spear her fingers through his hair, meeting his thrusts for her own as she kissed him deeply. He might be pissed but she was miserable, and she'd found that most intense emotions made her horny. Then again, Damon was usually there to assuage those emotions with sex, so maybe he'd conditioned her to be this way without her realizing it. "You're always pissed off… _And horny_."

He chuckled darkly against her lips as he pulled away enough to look at her. "What were you thinking about when I came here?"

Chloe blinked as she looked up at him. "You want to talk? Right now?"

He eyed her thoughtfully. "I can't get the expression on your face out of my mind."

Chloe licked her lips as she reached for Damon, not wanting to talk about this now, not when she knew what his reaction would be and how it would mess up how nicely things were going. "Not now. After."

"You're trying to distract me with sex." Damon pulled away and pushed her down to the grass with his hand on her chest. "That's _my_ tactic. Talk."

Chloe stared up at him and resigned herself to no sex (probably for a couple of centuries) with him as she sighed. "I talked to my boss and found out that Season Two of Supernatural Diaries is going to go ahead and be filmed like it was planned before I left." She licked her lips. "I know you don't appreciate what that means, and that you think it's just some crappy reality television show, but it means I'll have cameras in my face 24/7 and I'll be in situations that will test my very fragile control over my bloodlust, and I'm worried."

Damon was silent as he stared down at her.

The lack of an explosion encouraged her. "And I was thinking that I was going to miss you and Stefan like _hell_."

Damon narrowed his eyes at her, a dark and disturbed expression on his face. "Why would you miss us?"

Chloe blinked as she stared up at him. "I just told you. Season Two."

Damon seemed to be waiting for her to add something else.

Chloe blinked once more, confusion growing. "I'd have to travel across the States for a couple of months to film it." She licked her lips. "I mean, I'll call you guys but-."

He snorted in dark amusement. "That's cute."

"What is?" She continued to blink as she eyed the shadows playing on his face.

"The fact that you think I'm going to let you traipse across America with just Beevis and Butthead." Damon sneered in derision. "You can call _Stefan_. Me on the other hand? Well…" he stared down at her. "If you're not going to ask someone to Compel you out of this situation, then I'll just have to go along with you and make sure you don't get yourself killed-or lose control and accidentally kill your cousin either."

The blonde couldn't believe what she was hearing. "But the cameras-."

"Yeah, I know."

"You don't." Chloe shook her head. "I'm trying to figure out how I'll feed, or do anything, without the fact that I'm a vampire coming to light. I can't put you through that! At the first fight or mishap you'll use your vampiric abilities on camera and out yourself to the whole world!"

"I have a little more subtlety than that."

"No, you _don't_."

He paused and thought it over. "You're right, I really don't, but I _can_ Compel the cameramen to erase or edit out anything I don't want them filming, and to forget it themselves." He smirked. "Considering your ability only works with those on Vervain, you're going to need someone whose Compulsion works normally."

Chloe stared up at Damon, floored and touched and…

His eyes widened in horror. "Why are you crying?"

"I'm not crying," she denied as she reached up and rubbed the heel of her palms against her moist eyes. "There's something in my eye."

Damon stared down at her in that intense way that made her so hyperaware. "You really _were_ gonna miss me."

"_Of course I was_!" She hiccuped and continued to rub at her eyes because she was still 'had something in them'.

Damon reached down and bunched up the skirt of her dress before hooking his thumb around her underwear, giving a harsh yank, tearing the material off of her.

Chloe gasped as she arched at the sensation, eyes opening as she pulled her hands from her eyes to stare up at him.

"I'm definitely coming." Pocketing her underwear, Damon gave her a smirk as he reached between them undo his zipper and free himself from his boxers. "Gotta build a fanbase that rivals the Idiot Twins' somehow, don't I?"

Chloe frowned before she pushed him off of her and rolled onto her feet, settling her dress firmly back around her hips. "This isn't a game or a competition, Damon." She shook her head and started to walk away when suddenly she was shoved into a tree from behind, Damon pinning her against it with his own body. His hands were on her hips, already bunching up her dress once more, his hard-on pressed against the cleft of her ass, and his fangs deep in her neck.

Damon rubbed his cock against her teasingly as he drank from her blood.

The blonde whimpered as she rested her cheek against the bark, her fingers clutching at the tree as she felt herself grow wet embarrassingly fast in desire. "Since when are you such a damned cocktease?"

He chuckled into her shoulder before finally his fangs slid free and he pressed only the tip of his cock against the entrance of her wet heat, his hands on her hips and the weight of his body keeping her completely pinned to the tree as he breathed against her neck. "Since when do you sound like me?"

She was the one who chuckled this time, her only response to reach back rapidly and grab Damon's hands and yank them off her hips and instead around her waist as she pushed up onto her tip toes and tilted her hips back into his and impaled herself onto his cock.

A hiss escaped Damon's lips and he rested his forehead against the back of Chloe's head as he grabbed her hands and pinned them above her head on the bark of the tree. His hips moved on their own, thrusting deeper inside of her until he was completely buried inside of her warmth, home. "_Fucking hell, Chloe_."

"_It's been too long_," she agreed as she twisted her hips, the bark harsh on her skin and yet a welcome, grounding feeling as she closed her eyes, a groan escaping her parted lips at the feeling of him moving inside of her.

With everything that'd happened, things with her and Damon had seemed to be going from one argument to another, and she'd been sure that with the Katherine issues, the Klaus fight, and now Season Two, Damon was going to take off just like she'd always known he'd eventually do. And yet he was sticking around, and while Chloe had known that she'd miss Damon like hell whenever he chose to finally follow his nomadic lifestyle she hadn't realized just _how much_ she cared about the vampire until he'd told her he was going to tag along for Season Two. The relief that'd filled her at the realization that she wasn't going to have to say good bye just yet-it'd made her scared, it was why she'd tried pushing away for a split second, but she should've known better, she _did_ know better, and it was why they were here right now, and she couldn't keep committing the same mistakes over and over again damn it!

Damon thrust upwards into her like a jackhammer, his upper body molded against hers.

She'd be bruised come morning but she didn't care, it wasn't anything some blood wouldn't cure, and maybe she wouldn't drink any for a while just to enjoy his marks all over her body for as long as she could.

"_What were you thinking?_" He breathed into her ear as he continued to ram his cock as deep inside her as possible, pushing her harder and harder against the tree with each thrust. "_You clenched so tightly around my cock._"

"Wouldn't _you_ like to know."

In a blink of an eye they were back on the grass, Chloe laying on her back, Damon smirking at her quite evilly from his position between her bent knees. "As a matter of fact, I _would_."

The second his mouth made contact with her, Chloe threw her head back and cried out, her hands clutching at the blades of grass around her as spikes of pleasure raced up her body like currents of electricity. Damon had a dirty mouth and a wicked tongue, and when he put them to good use they could render her speechless, _unable of thought_, the blonde solely capable of uttering his name, whimpering while she held onto whatever she could, and begging.

He tasted her, seeming to make up for all the time they hadn't been together, the vampire parting her thighs further and opening her more to his exploration. Damon swiped his head to the side and buried his fangs into her innermost thigh, bringing blood to the surface, drinking freely before he returned his attentions to her numb, sucking on that hardened, sensitive pebble and making her see stars.

"_Damon_!" Chloe arched off of the grass, lights exploding in her mind, the pleasure increasing and leaving her desperate.

His only response was to slide two fingers deep inside of her slick passage while still tormenting her clit, the pleasure near torturous as he curled the fingers inside of her and began to pump them rapidly, knuckle-deep.

Her body twitched with uncontrollable shivers of pleasure that were almost painful, Chloe's grip on the grass tearing the blades from the ground as she arched her back, shocks of pleasure racing rapidly to her core, coiling tightly. Each lap of Damon's tongue, each thrust of his fingers, each torturous suck on her clit, brought her closer and closer, her body jerking viciously, _so close_, until he stopped all his ministrations. "Damon _please_!"

He was already climbing up her body, his palms on the ground on each side of her head, his blues staring down into her greens and eating up her desperation with sadistic pleasure as he rubbed his cock against her entrance. "Please what?"

Her whole body was quivering, her skin paling, her veins appearing as her eyes went bloody in her annoyance at him, in her desperation. "If you don't shove your cock in me I swear to god I'll rip it off and-!"

With a laugh, Damon rammed himself hilt-deep inside of her, the vampire groaning as he closed his eyes. "I love it when you threaten me."

Chloe didn't answer, couldn't think, lost in the toe-curling sensations as her body thrummed, a loud humming in her ears as she reached out and grabbed Damon's shirt, pulling him down closer to her as she kissed him deeper and rocked her hips up to meet Damon's. She was so close, so incredibly _close_!

Damon twisted his hips and hit something inside of her that had Chloe tearing the material of his shirt as she cried into his mouth, the pleasure exploding inside of her as she lost all control of her body as it writhed in unimaginable pleasure. He fucked her through her orgasm, through the intense sensitivity, and when Chloe was able to think again, to concentrate on anything other than the blinding pleasure and the incredible oneness, amazing warmth, she found herself sitting astride Damon's lap as he continued to fuck up into her.

Chloe pressed kisses down Damon's jaw, alternating from mere kisses to nibbles and back, loving the taste of his skin beneath her tongue. Every time her teeth scraped his skin he pushed deeper up into her, and as she kissed her way down his neck she buried her fangs deep, drinking his blood.

His thrusts became more urgent as he tilted his head to give her better access as she lapped at his blood. "_So good_." He grabbed her hips and raised her up and down his cock rapidly, almost viciously, the tip of his cock touching something deep inside of her that had her grabbing onto his shoulders and arching her back. "If I could go back in time knowing what I do now, I would've sired you instead of Stefan, and I would've done things differently. Things would be different."

The comment confused her but she really didn't have time to ask him what he was talking about because she could already feel herself nearly another orgasm, the blonde moving her hips desperately, trying to push herself faster towards the edge. "Wouldn't want to be-anywhere else but-right here-right now-with you."

He buried his face in her neck and pressed a kiss. "I know that sound… you're close again." He smiled against her skin. "Your body's so easy to ready."

She'd be insulted if it wasn't for the fact that his ability to read her so easily meant she was always weak with pleasure. "Cum with me this time." She clenched around him tightly on purpose and then cried out when it sent shocks of pleasure throughout her own body. "I need it Damon, I need your cum inside of me."

He groaned and hurried his thrusts up into her.

Chloe gasped, pleasure leaving her breathless as she barely managed hold onto his shoulders and whisper into his ear. "_I need you to fuck me harder and cum deep inside_."

Damon cursed as his thrusts grew so hard she knew she'd feel it much later, would be so sore she'd need to drink blood to be able to walk straight.

Chloe nibbled on the shell of Damon's ear. "_I'm so close, Damon_."

Damon's only answer was to reach between them and pinch her clit.

The blonde threw her head back and cried out as the pleasure washed over her even more intensely than the first time she'd climaxed. "_Damon_!"

Pressing kisses against her chest, Damon groaned as he thrust desperately up into her before burying himself to the hilt and cumming within her, filling her completely.

Breathing hard, dizzy, Chloe rode through her high before collapsing against him with a kiss to Damon's temple.

Damon caressed her back as he kissed her shoulder. "I can't believe I didn't get you naked."

She snorted in laughter and gave a little buck on his still hardened cock. "Is that a _complaint_ I hear, mister?"

"You bet your pert little ass with its cute birthmark it is." Damon's hands lowered to her ass and began to knead her cheeks. "I happen to _like_ you naked."

"You're not too bad without your clothes either." She smiled and pressed another kiss to his temple, a small groan escaping her lips as Damon began to manipulate her on his cock. "Here's your chance for us both to get naked."

He grinned and lowered her down to the grass, pulling off his shirt and working on the belt of his unzipped pants.

Chloe smirked up at him and sat up, pulling her dress up over her head.

There was a lot of upheaval in their future, but for right now, Chloe was just relieved that Damon wasn't going to skip town and had decided to stick around for a little longer.

It might be selfish of her, but she planned on enjoying what she had, and not running away any longer.

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" LuisaCarmenBieber says: #Schlean is the only pairing that matters. #Schlean4Life! #ChloeShipping." Giuliana Rancic read the tweets as they appeared on the screen behind her. "But KlarissaHaris disagrees with a: #Chlalvatore is what's really going on people. Get over #Schlean. #ChloeShipping." Giuliana then smirked as she read the next one. "And ReginaReid says: Oh come on! He got her a dress and bling! #OnlyRealOption #TeamKlaus #Chlaus #ChloeShipping."

"Sounds like things are getting heated in the shipping realm." Jason smirked as he cleared his throat to read the next tweet. " GiannaRoss says: #ChloeShipping #Schleanvatore." He blinked. "A girl of few words and yet has gotten her message across quite clearly."

"And she's not the only one going for that hashtag Jason," Giuliana informed him. " MarjorieIsAMinx says: Why pick? #Schleanvatore. #ChloeShipping." She waited for the next tweet to appear. " AbbyDoesntDateDorks says: #Schleanvatore! (blame it on the fanfiction) #ChloeShipping." Giuliana licked her lips. " JessieBaby says: I'm a usually staunch #Schlean shipper, but I'm open to #Schleanvatore. #ChloeShipping."

Jason tilted his head to the side. " MadisonRoxUrSox says: #Chlalvatore & Slean #ChloeShipping #LoisShipping." He made a face. "She has gotten some _seriously_ negative responses for that comment, poor girl. Apparently not many people are backing the idea of Lois with Sam and Dean."

His co-host nodded. "She probably would've gotten a better response if she'd just mentioned Lean. People like Lois with Dean more than the idea of them having a threesome with Sam."

"There's more of a brother and sister thing between those two, it'd be weird." Jason agreed before he read the last twitter message to appear on the screen. "Last, but not least, YellowEyedHoney says: Don't care as long as she's happy. #Schlean #Chlalvatore #Chlaus #Schleanvatore #ChloeAnyone #ChloeShipping."

"I liked that one, I think YellowEyedHoney has it spot on the money, Jason." Giuliana smiled. "As long as she's happy… But still, we can all hope, can't we?"

"And keep a close eye on any new developments," Jason agreed, eyes on the camera. "And, of course, report everything to our friends at home the second we find out!"

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**End of The Enemy of My Enemy**


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